A third of gamers want to use crypto in the metaverse
More than half (53%) of gamers surveyed say they would be happy to work in a gaming metaverse
Despite opposition from parts of the gaming industry and community, a new study has shown that a third of gamers are interested in using cryptocurrency in the metaverse.
YouGov survey reveals gamer attitudes to the metaverse
Conducted last month by the global polling company YouGov and published by the software developer Globant, the survey found that 34% of 1,000 adult console, PC and mobile gamers indicated an interest in conducting cryptocurrency transactions in virtual worlds.
More than half of those polled (53%) said that they would be happy to work in a gaming metaverse in order to earn crypto.
Interest in the concept of the metaverse has grown substantially in the past year, accelerated in part by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to rebrand Facebook as Meta and to direct tens of thousands of engineers to develop virtual environments.
Meta tops best-known metaverse brands
The importance of Zuckerberg’s early commitment can be seen by the fact that Meta was the best-known metaverse brand. While 73% of those polled recognised Meta, Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, was only recognised by 27% of respondents. Roblox, The Sandbox and Pokémon Go developer Niantic were known by only 21%, 15% and 10%, respectively.
While 40% of respondents associated blockchain technology with the metaverse, only one blockchain-native platform made the list of recognised metaverse brands.
Although 25% of those polled thought that the metaverse wil have a negative impact on the gaming industry, 41% thought it would have a positive aspect and 52% believed it would change the industry.
Metaverse-linked tokens rise in Friday trading
With the capitalisation of the total cryptocurrency market having risen by 6% on Friday 15 July, the leading metaverse-oriented cryptos also enjoyed healthy gains according to CoinMarketCap.
Decentraland, The Sandbox and Axie Infinity traded up by 6.4%, 6.2% and 5.6% on the past 24 hours, respectively. All three surged to record highs in November and all three have lost more than 80% of their value in the past eight months.
