The Reality and Future of Metaverse Platforms: Opportunities and Challenges at the Industry Turning Point in 2025
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Redefining the Metaverse Industry and Practical Approaches
As of the end of 2025, the metaverse industry is evolving from initial excessive expectations to a more realistic and practical direction. According to the latest report from the market research firm Gartner, the global metaverse market size is expected to reach approximately $240 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4%. This represents about a 40% increase compared to 2023, which, while lower than the initial industry forecast of a 50% growth rate, still demonstrates robust growth. Notably, the B2B metaverse solutions market is playing a leading role, accounting for 62% of the total market.
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, announced in its third-quarter 2025 earnings report that Reality Labs’ revenue increased by 15.8% year-over-year, reaching $4.1 billion. This is considered the most significant achievement among Meta’s cumulative investment of $158 billion in the metaverse business. Meta’s Quest 3 headset surpassed cumulative sales of 8.5 million units since its launch, showing a 32% improvement over the same period for its predecessor, Quest 2. More importantly, the average user engagement time increased to 2.4 hours, with 43% of this time being used for work and educational purposes.
Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, is employing a differentiated strategy in the metaverse field. Its Mesh for Microsoft Teams platform secured 12.4 million enterprise users worldwide by 2025, a 78% increase from the previous year. Microsoft is particularly focused on utilizing the metaverse in hybrid work environments, announcing that 73% of Fortune 500 companies have adopted its metaverse solutions. These achievements suggest that there are greater market opportunities in enterprise solutions than in consumer-centric metaverses.
The metaverse market in Korea is also showing unique development patterns. Samsung Electronics, based in Suwon, is focusing on building an AR ecosystem linked to its Galaxy smartphones, with the Galaxy S25 series released in 2025 featuring enhanced AR capabilities. Samsung’s AR platform ‘Samsung AR Canvas’ reached 2.8 million monthly active users within six months of its launch. In particular, metaverse experiences linked to K-pop concerts are gaining significant popularity in the Korean market, which is analyzed as a unique characteristic of the Asian market.
Technological Innovation and the Evolution of the Hardware Ecosystem
One of the most crucial factors in the popularization of the metaverse is the accessibility and performance improvement of hardware. NVIDIA, based in Santa Clara, California, launched the new RTX 50 series GPU in September 2025, significantly enhancing metaverse rendering performance. The RTX 5090 offers 2.3 times improved VR rendering performance compared to the previous generation and delivers a stable frame rate of 120fps at 4K resolution. This has greatly improved the issue of motion sickness, which is a critical factor in the metaverse experience.
Sony, based in Tokyo, Japan, has secured a unique positioning in the metaverse market based on the success of PlayStation VR2. PSVR2 recorded cumulative sales of 6.2 million units by 2025, with social VR application usage beyond gaming reaching 34%. Sony is also providing metaverse experiences utilizing its music, film, and animation content, offering important insights into the metaverse entry strategies of companies with content IP.
In the metaverse development platform market, Unity Technologies, based in San Francisco, California, and Roblox, based in New York, are engaged in fierce competition. Unity announced that 71% of global VR/AR applications use its engine as of 2025, showing strength particularly in developing enterprise metaverse solutions. Unity’s metaverse development tool ‘Unity Mars’ surpassed 140,000 monthly active developers by the third quarter of 2025.
Roblox has established a unique ecosystem as a user-generated content (UGC) based metaverse platform. By the fourth quarter of 2025, Roblox’s daily active users reached 73.2 million, with the proportion of adult users aged 16 and over increasing to 58%. This indicates that Roblox has evolved from an initially child-centric platform to a metaverse platform encompassing all age groups. The revenue generated by creators within Roblox reached $842 million annually by 2025, serving as an indicator of the substantial growth of the metaverse economic ecosystem.
A noteworthy technological advancement is the combination of cloud rendering and 5G networks. Korea’s position as a leading country in 5G commercialization provides a significant competitive advantage in offering metaverse services. Domestic telecom companies such as SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus are expanding cloud VR services utilizing 5G networks, enabling high-quality metaverse experiences through smartphones without the need for expensive VR headsets. SK Telecom’s ‘Jump VR’ service secured 850,000 monthly users by 2025.
Another important advancement in metaverse technology is the improvement of haptic feedback and spatial computing technology. Apple’s Vision Pro, launched in 2024, popularized the concept of spatial computing, with a more improved version expected to be released in 2025. Apple’s approach focuses on mixed experiences with the real world rather than complete virtual reality, suggesting a practical direction for the application of metaverse technology. Although the cumulative sales of Vision Pro have not been officially announced, industry estimates place it at around 500,000 units, which is considered a significant achievement for an initially high-priced product.
Industry-Specific Metaverse Adoption and Diversification of Business Models
The practical value of the metaverse is emerging in its application across various industries beyond entertainment. In the education sector, remote education and practical training using the metaverse are rapidly expanding. The global education metaverse market grew to $8.7 billion by 2025, a 34% increase from the previous year. The use of the metaverse is rapidly increasing in simulation training for high-risk occupations such as medical staff education, pilot training, and industrial safety training.
The utilization of the metaverse in the healthcare sector is also noteworthy. VR/AR technology is being widely adopted in surgery simulation, telemedicine, and medical staff education, with the global healthcare metaverse market size reaching $5.2 billion by 2025. In Korea, metaverse-based medical services are rapidly expanding in conjunction with digital healthcare policies. Seoul National University Hospital began full-scale operation of a VR-based surgical education program in 2025, which is evaluated to improve the efficiency of medical staff education by 30%.
The adoption of the metaverse in manufacturing is providing a new level of efficiency when combined with the ‘digital twin’ concept. Siemens in Germany integrated metaverse technology into its digital factory solutions, implementing virtual simulations and remote monitoring of manufacturing processes. This resulted in an average 18% improvement in manufacturing efficiency and a 23% reduction in equipment downtime. Hyundai Motor Group in Korea also introduced a metaverse-based production management system at its Ulsan plant, simultaneously achieving productivity improvement and quality management enhancement.
The utilization of the metaverse is also expanding in the real estate sector. Virtual real estate tours, architectural design visualization, and remote real estate consultations are becoming commonplace, growing rapidly in conjunction with the increased demand for contactless services post-COVID-19. The U.S. metaverse real estate platform market grew to $1.5 billion by 2025, with major Korean real estate platforms such as Zigbang and Dabang expanding VR tour services.
The adoption of the metaverse in the retail industry is creating a new consumer experience known as ‘virtual shopping.’ Nike established ‘Nikeland’ on the Roblox platform to provide brand experiences, with an average of 2.2 million monthly visitors to this space. Luxury brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga are also selling digital fashion items on metaverse platforms, gaining attention as a new revenue model. The digital fashion market grew to $2.6 billion by 2025, showing rapid growth with a CAGR of 41%.
The utilization of the metaverse is also increasing in the financial services sector. Virtual bank branches, metaverse-based customer consultations, and financial education are being introduced, showing effectiveness particularly in financial services targeting younger generations. JP Morgan Chase opened a virtual branch on the metaverse platform Decentraland in 2024 and expanded it in 2025 to offer metaverse-based investment consultation services. In Korea, Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank are also piloting metaverse-based financial services.
However, there are still challenges to be addressed in the industry-specific adoption of the metaverse. Technical limitations, high adoption costs, and user accessibility issues are major barriers. For small and medium-sized enterprises, the initial investment cost required for metaverse adoption acts as a burden, remaining a significant challenge for the popularization of metaverse technology. Additionally, legal issues such as data security, privacy protection, and intellectual property rights in the metaverse environment are also important challenges to be resolved.
As of the end of 2025, the metaverse industry is moving away from initial exaggerated expectations towards a more realistic and practical direction. The market is diversifying from consumer entertainment-centric solutions to enterprise solutions and industry-specific services, reflecting the maturity of metaverse technology and the substantial increase in market demand. The future growth of the metaverse market is expected to depend on technological innovation, cost-efficiency improvements, and the ability to provide substantial value. The convergence with AI technology, the expansion of 5G/6G network infrastructure, and the continuous improvement of hardware technology are anticipated to be the next growth drivers of the metaverse industry.
*This analysis is based on publicly available market data and industry reports and is not intended as investment advice. All investments carry risks, so please make decisions after careful consideration.*
