Decentraland’s Genesis Plaza, where your adventure begins.
Remember 2021? It was a strange time for pretty much everything. Pandemic lockdowns gripped the world and we all spent more time online and indoors. There were consequences.
Mark Zuckerberg, sensing a shift towards lives spent in a virtual reality, would rename Facebook to Meta, hinting at the ‘metaverse’ project that he would later lose $70 billion on. Meanwhile, crypto pumped in every way imaginable and Elon Musk joined Saturday Night Live to shill Dogecoin. I’ll admit I drank more alcohol than usual during lockdown, but I am fairly sure that at least most of this happened.
All of this brings me on to Decentraland, a Web3 virtual world with its own currency. The platform found itself with a full house in 2021’s game of Buzzword Bingo (minus GameStop), and its MANA tokens briefly reached a market cap above $8.5bn, with coins reaching a high of $5.90 each.
There was a slight problem though. Expectations for the Decentraland platform were sky high, but it was still in its infancy.
“In full transparency, and we all admit this, the platform wasn’t ready in 2021,” says Kim Currier, Head of Partnerships and Marketing at Decentraland. “The platform and the visuals and the ability to connect with one another was still so baseline. It was a very basic online experience in a 3D space.”
“We were still web-based, which limits a lot of visual capabilities due to high load times. It was kind of laggy, and you couldn’t see the full user-created world that was in front of you.”
As you’d expect, first-timers in Decentraland were expecting a fully fledged immersive world of virtual reality, with graphics and adventure on a par with Triple A-rated video games. This promise remained unmet, and VR headsets were nowhere to be seen.
Currier joined Decentraland in September 2022, and while she praises the team for its response to the dramatic influx of attention, she admits there was some thinking to do when she arrived.
“Should we be a game? A metaverse? A virtual world? And what do each of these things mean? What do people expect when they hear it today versus a few years ago?”
Good questions. And in truth, there’s still a lack of consensus on what actually constitutes a metaverse. These days, Currier refers to Decentraland officially as “a social virtual world, which is part of the metaverse.” When describing it to total newbies, she says “it’s a fun 3D place to hang out online.” Maybe that’s all it needs to be right now.
A Metaverse Misunderstood
I want to discuss Decentraland’s evolution and improvements, and I will. Even so, it would be too optimistic to do this without mentioning present limitations and public criticisms. The platform was described as a ‘dead mall’ by one prominent YouTuber a few years back, and several writers have derided it for having sparse crowds and a lack of immersive gameplay. One reporter went as far as to write an ‘autopsy’ for it.
Speaking personally, my first experience of the platform was attending 2023’s Metaverse Fashion Week, which featured brands like Michael Kors, Coach, and Tommy Hilfiger. I attended the event while researching for my book, Why DeFi Matters, but didn’t report back as I’d joined right at the end and very few people were still there. My enduring memories were an impressive floating Coach handbag, and the slightly unnerving experience of my laptop becoming hot enough to fry an egg, a consequence of the computing demands.
In the Christmas period of 2025, I jumped back into Decentraland.
My first port of call was the Decentraland map, which highlights the most popular locations and allows you to drop straight into them. I started with ‘Games’ on the map’s category list, and checked out the top ranked minigolf game, Golfcraft Minigolf. I’m greeted by a massive golf ball called ‘Golf Head’, which informs me that I need some ‘Soul Tokens’ to play. 15 minutes and some dull fetch quests later, my minigolf dreams are ashes and dust.
Didn’t want to play anyway. No seriously though, this clown is my nemesis.
I then turned my attention to places like the skatepark and Unity Café. I don’t run into anyone, so instead shift to the casino page, where the Tominoya Casino is listed as the major attraction. In 2022, this place had generated over $7.5million in revenue in 3 months, and been responsible for a third of Decentraland’s traffic. Today, the casino owners have packed up. There’s not a slot machine or poker table in sight.
There may be good reasons why my quest felt lonely. I’m advised by Currier that user numbers ebb and flow depending on time zone and active events, and I’ve turned up at a random time during a public holiday. Likewise, lower spec computers may not load every avatar that’s in a location, and I’m once again using a laptop - a recent model of the Macbook Pro - that’s blowing hot air like a hand dryer with a leadership podcast. This may well be an issue.
Before leaving, I scrolled further down the casino list and discovered the curiously named Cathouse Lounge. Having confirmed my age with a vibesy floating bouncer, it quickly became apparent that I’d stumbled into Decentraland’s most prominent virtual strip club. Again, I seem to be alone, but I see posters for erotic dancers on the wall and X-rated content on the screen along with adverts for upcoming events. It’s adult content, sure, but it also exemplifies the fact that these venues really come to life during community events, and also that people can pretty much build whatever they want. Never forget the things that I do in the name of journalism.
This is where I wrap the revisit. I think it’s fair to note the lack of fellow avatars, but this slightly misses the point of the place in 2026. At present, Decentraland is finding more success in being a venue for pre-planned events, regular community gatherings, and hanging out with friends, rather than being an ‘always on’ virtual world and economy. People appear to be jumping in and out of Decentraland for specific purposes, rather than milling about with no agenda for hours per day. To be generous, we could say it’s not unlike a wide range of physical spaces in that regard.
I’ll add that Decentraland’s main square, Genesis Plaza, is typically a good spot to meet other people. The central fountain, which is in sight every time you enter the map, is a recognised meeting point, and when I visit during the Christmas period the plaza is adorned with festive collectible giveaways. The nearby theatre isn’t showing anything but screenings are advertised for a later date and time.
This smiley guy is your gateway to Decentraland’s virtual strip club.
A Note On Decentralised Adventures:
Skateparks, strip clubs, cafés, casinos. In Decentraland they’re primarily created by the users themselves. Naturally, designs and experiences vary in style and quality.
What are the actual numbers?
User numbers are always a hot topic when Decentraland is discussed. The Decentraland team shared its latest figures in its 2025 end of year recap.
Data from Decentraland’s 2025 Recap:
70 minutes average session time per login
45-120 minutes typical time spent during events
12k+ friendship requests accepted
3.9m unique visitors to Decentraland web properties
163k unique downloads of the DCL 2.0 client
270k unique wallets engaged with the platform
1m Emotes triggered
1m+ chat messages sent
Marketplace transaction volume up ~46% year-over-year
$660k+ distributed across creator programs
Reframing the Metaverse
Decentraland is evolving. Currier explains that community parties, music festivals, birthday parties and other virtual events have been popular among users.
“I think the world needs more synchronous interactions,” she says. “And for many that’s not possible due to geography, finances, and physical ability to go out to a concert. I think that’s where Decentraland thrives.”
There have been several major highlights in the past year. Currier mentions Decentraland’s Music Fest, as well as its regular weekly events such as UnMonday, a gathering at the start of the week with live DJs and MANA giveaways. Decentraland’s events page shows multiple events running each day, and when I look on a Thursday, UnMonday’s latest get together already has 300+ registrants. Another popular group is SheFi, a community designed to bring women together and provide education on crypto, blockchain and Web3.
It seems fitting that a crypto educational group would thrive here, but Decentraland is also adapting to welcome users with no Web3 or DeFi experience. For instance, users can now make in-game purchases with regular credit cards.
Decentraland’s Theatre, in Genesis Plaza.
SheFi - A closer look
Given that SheFi is showing what can be done, I spoke with founder Maggie Love to find out how virtual worlds can add value to the group’s 22,000+ members.
While SheFi’s course is primarily hosted on Zoom, it hosts a graduation party and community gatherings in Decentraland. For the graduations, Love plays a video of a graduation speech and the event continues with a live DJ.
“It’s a low-friction way to bond that feels better than a Google Meet or a Zoom,” she says. It also builds familiarity with the virtual world, and Love mentions that many people show off their emotes (which can be acquired in Decentraland), encouraging others to level up their metaverse avatars.
Several members have subsequently become long-term contributors to the platform, and regularly revisit to co-work or meet socially.
“You know you have a strong community when people are self-organising meetups,” says Love. “We have real creators that heard about the Decentraland class and are jumping into it and creating whole worlds. We even had a careers fair in there.”
“I think the bigger success is that women do love it. They’re enjoying it and they go there on their own.”
Love says that the United States and India, out of the 100+ countries represented in the group, are SheFi’s top two geographies. The crucial thing here is community, and where Decentraland thrives is in adding a place for people to connect on a more genuine level.
“Communities are really important in this age. With the rapid evolution of AI and [the rise of] remoteness and loneliness, platforms like Decentraland offer an alternative place for people. It’s a true digital third space. With the current state of the world, none of the digital tools have really offered a place to connect. That’s my hot take.”
“The reason any brand thrives and is successful is community. Any brand that’s successful is going to put community at the heart of their brand, and it won’t just be a buzzword… Community is the only way to survive in the super fragmented world that we’re in.”
Web2 Meets Web3
The removal of barriers for ‘normies’ is something we should dwell on. Web3 stuff rarely goes mainstream, often because it’s relatively hard to use and understand. It’s not just technical language and knowledge gaps that alienate new users; Web3 and crypto contain a range of subcultures, and subcultures as a general rule define themselves against the norm. But there’s no mass adoption without accommodating the norm.
“I really do want us to go mainstream,” says Currier. “And the way to do that is to speak in normal language and put Web3 under the hood. We’ve changed the language that we use, we’ve updated our website, we’ve started ad campaigns.”
“To be completely honest, decentralisation was a big selling point in 2020 when it first launched. The idea is still to be decentralised, but we’re making it far more accessible to Web2 audiences by using language that they care more about.”
Put simply, there’s been a shift in favour of user experience and accessibility as selling points, rather than the economic model and ideology.
What does this mean in practice? Besides allowing credit card payments, Decentraland has removed the need for a crypto wallet for logging in. You can now use an email, Twitter, or Discord, and a wallet will be created for you on the backend. It’s become a lot easier to get started and to start owning and trading Wearables and land.
Speaking of land, it’s also getting easier to build within Decentraland. No-code solutions have been introduced, and builders are now using AI to code and create too. This contrasts with the situation during Decentraland’s hype phase.
“You had to know how to code to build on land at that time,” says Currier. “It was mostly developers and high-tech creators. It’s more accessible to everyday people now, versus just Web3 people who know about coding.”
This, again, speaks to a bigger truth. When Decentraland was attracting big money, speculators were dropping major sums on its plots of land. This mania reached its pinnacle in November 2021 when a plot in the ‘Fashion Street’ district sold for $2.43 million. While it seemed to be good news that Decentraland was attracting these inflows, the value of the virtual world hinges on what’s created within it, and many of the first wave of speculators didn’t actually build anything. What use is a platform that’s both ‘not really ready’ and hard to build in?
Hayabusa’s floating whale is a great example of what can be built by the community.
A Cultural Shift
The need to understand your audience cuts both ways. It’s not simply the case that Web3 doesn’t understand Web2. The same is largely true in reverse. Currier reflects on the initial appearance of banks and other Web3 outsiders appearing in Decentraland, saying that a lot of them “just built another grey building,” and designed wearables that were plain branded T-shirts or suits.
“A lot of companies thought, ‘I need my headquarters’. And for them, headquarters just meant a digital replication of what they have in the physical world. And that’s super boring.”
Instead, Currier insists that lessons can be learned from creators who are pushing the boundaries and making full use of the fact that the metaverse isn’t confined by the same limitations as the outside world.
“Someone in our community, Hayabusa, recently built this incredible floating whale inside a bubble. It looks like you’re under the ocean, and yet you chose to make a grey building?”
Contrast the whale with Deutsche Bank’s thrilling metaverse effort.
Web3 networking platform Bondex, however, has nailed the assignment.
The lesson learned is that the metaverse requires a different strategy to real life and Web2 settings. This extends to events too, and Decentraland’s events landscape is evolving to reflect this.
For instance, Decentraland’s 2025 Music Festival abandoned its previous strategy of bringing in traditional big names. Past editions had featured Ozzy Osborne, Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, Paris Hilton and Björk.
“We found that their fans didn’t follow them in,” says Currier. The platform opted for YouTubers and Twitch streamers instead, and shifted from its previous focus on electronic dance music (EDM) to a broader range of genres.
Likewise, during this year’s Art Week, artists collaborated with builders to bring their studio concepts to life in Decentraland. Rather than relying on clout from the outside world, Decentraland appears to be refocused on events that mesh better with its virtual world and add value to it.
The runways of Metaverse Fashion Week witnessed a similar transition. With major brands like Michael Kors, Prada, Nike, Gucci, Burberry and Adidas stepping away, 2025’s show featured metaverse digital native brands Hape, Free the Youth, Cyberdog and FFFACE.ME, and individual Wearable creators like Roustan and Match Zimmerman. My first thought was that revenue must have nosedived, but I’m informed this is not the case.
“We didn’t make any money from any of those brand partners,” says Currier. “When we do a brand partnership, we’re giving away the Wearables for free. We’re collaboratively building, so money will be spent because we have to pay the coders, and pay publishing and minting fees, but we’re not charging them for that opportunity. We weren’t getting a cut and we weren’t making a profit.”
In fact the Decentraland Foundation, which manages the platform, is a non-profit organisation. It does not have a revenue model and is built as a public good. It’s worth mentioning that the Foundation and the Decentraland DAO (which works to govern the platform), have their own treasuries, and that the DAO receives 2.5% on sales made within Decentraland’s marketplace. The DAO can vote on protocol and how to best utilise its own funds, but not on how the Foundation spends its resources.
Final Thoughts:
The metaverse is a bewildering thing to unpack. Today, the popular perception of the concept gets muddied by conflicting descriptions and dragged by unrealistic expectations. A recalibration is needed for a fair assessment of something like Decentraland, which is miles apart from the Metaverse that Zuckerberg was selling to the world in 2021. If you expect that vision to be realised here, you are going to be underwhelmed.
The ‘Metaverse’ remains a loose marketing term that’s doing too much. It conjures thoughts of an alternative universe when what we really have are 3D online virtual worlds of varying quality, which don’t necessarily require a VR headset. There may come a time when a brilliant and synchronous virtual reality achieves mass adoption but we are not there, and considering the recent cuts to Meta’s Reality Labs division, we’re probably not even close.
The decentralised aspect of Decentraland adds another layer of confusion. I’ll avoid diving into a million questions on governance, but decentralised finance is a big part of this story.
The extravagant sums spent on MANA and LAND tokens, designed to incentivise activity, have made the platform an easy punching bag for critics. Such criticisms are a little unsympathetic to the fact that MANA can be easily bought by speculators on numerous crypto exchanges.
The challenge is practical as well as reputational. Just as we learned from the Decentraland real estate bubble of ‘21, there are lots of people who bought, held, and sold while showing no interest in shaping and contributing to the virtual world that they wanted to extract value from. Ironically, many owners of Decentraland’s LAND tokens are likely to be cheapening the real estate in the long run. The concept of a virtual environment with a fairer and less centralised economy is promising. Building it at scale, however, is incredibly tough.
Decentraland’s latest pivot interests me. The platform is repositioning for life after the hype and rebuilding in a way that seems to be a better reflection of what it’s supposed to be right now. It’s distancing itself from the M-word, lowering barriers to entry for builders, and focusing on community.
And this makes a lot of sense. Community is everything for decentralised projects, and virtual worlds can be very effective places to build them in - there are countless examples of meaningful connections starting on gaming and social platforms, where people meet avatar to avatar rather than face to face (recent documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, focused on World of Warcraft, demonstrates this well).
That said, there is robust competition. For gamers, social needs can be met on games like Roblox and Fortnite, and in a more general sense, international connections are largely maintained with social media platforms and video calls. Decentraland has the USP of Web3 economics and user-created experiences, but these alone don’t win you a community.
Regular get-togethers like SheFi and UnMondays are promising signs for Decentraland. Green shoots rather than blossoms, I would say, but encouraging nonetheless. Whatever happens next, Decentraland is positioning for a growth phase based on its actual identity, and on being a ‘fun 3D place to hang out online’. This feels like an appropriate evolution from the hype and speculations of 2021.
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