cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

VR Chat gets $80M in Funding

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

It's nice to see Social VR booming!

 

VRChat, the popular social VR platform, announced its secured a Series D funding round of $80 million, which brings to the startup more than five times its overall lifetime investment.

 

VRChat is a free app that brings together VR and non-VR users in user-generated spaces that can range from the mundane to the truly fantastic. Having celebrated its first taste of virality back in 2018, the PC and SteamVR-compatible app went on to include support for Oculus Quest in late 2020, which propelled it yet further with record-setting concurrent user numbers. The company now boasts over 40,000 concurrent users.

 

The company says the investment will “expedite development of a creator economy where members can earn, an enhanced social discovery system for more meaningful experiences, and expansion to more platforms. These enhancements will contribute to VRChat’s rapid growth and allow more people to access this virtual universe.”

 

Last year, social VR app Rec Room also dipped its toes into the digital economy by offering its creators real financial reward for developing on the app, which includes things like premium experiences, avatar accessories, and in-game gadgets. Rec Room also posted some pretty substantial funding, as its latest round garnered it a $100 million Series D and a $1.25 billion valuation.

 

This means Rec Room and VRChat now rank among some of the most valuable VR companies outside of platform holders Facebook, Valve, and HTC.

 

Note that this "economy" will likely include In-App purchases, which is something we already see in Rec Room. It's basically a Roblox Model (which also includes Banner Ads).

 

Full Article:

https://www.roadtovr.com/vrchat-80m-series-d-funding/

12 REPLIES 12


@kevinw729 wrote:


Regarding why a commercial version of VR chat or RecRoom is not available is broken down into two points - the first is resources, the developers having limited teams to spend on a niche sector

 


 

Exactly. Because there is simply no Return on Investment (ROI) in developing something like RecRoom for a VR Arcade.

 

We have to remember that VR Arcades, and the like, all rely on charging by the hour. Some VR Arcade experiences charge by the minute!

 

Imagine something like RecRoom in a VR Arcade... where you would spend $50 just to set up your Avatar lol

 

As we have seen with the FarCryVR experience, which caps out between 30-45 minutes, the VR Arcade industry is mimicking the "newer Arcade" business model of: Make consumers spend lots of money for short experiences.

 

Gone are the days of sitting at the Arcade Machine for 1 hour using only a single quarter. Arcades nowadays (e.g. Main Event, Dave & Busters, VR Arcades) are all about the quick cash grab. You have to spend a lot of cash (in dollars, not cents) for a few short minutes.

 

This is clearly the result of the Arcade industry lacking in its ability to compete with the innovations consumers have available at home; so Arcades today need to grab as much cash from the consumer upfront; as there is little to no repeat business.

Nekto2
Superstar

What do you think of new Metaverse idea from fb? Sounds great 🙂

If VR chat will also support it, we could gather a party in vrchat and then jump into some other game together.

There we could win some prizes (3d object) in game and bring them back into vrchat! 🙂

It is possible even that we will have live casting  of game match into vrchat so other people could in that room could see it! 😄

Or that is distant future? 🙂 🙂 🙂


@Nekto2 wrote:

What do you think of new Metaverse idea from fb? Sounds great 🙂

 


Yeah that Metaverse sounds amazing! I have been meaning to start a thread on it, but keep getting distracted lol