What Are The Most Popular Virtual Worlds?

Decentraland

Decentraland is the largest and possibly the most popular Virtual Blockchain World that exists today. Overseen by the nonprofit Decentraland Foundation, this three-dimensional (3D) metaverse is powered by the Ethereum blockchain. As the name suggests, it's a decentralised virtual world, so instead of running on a central server, every content within the world is hosted on nodes running on various computers worldwide. Thus, the virtual world cannot be shut down and will exist on the blockchain forever.

There are 90,601 individual plots of lands on Decentraland, which include 22,886 district land, 43,689 private land parcels, 9,438 roads, and 3,558 plazas. Users of Decentraland can purchase, sell, and trade land plots while exploring, playing games, and interacting with others within the virtual world. Each land in Decentraland is an NFT and can be bought using MANA, the virtual world's official cryptocurrency.

Somnium Space

Somnium Space is the second-largest virtual blockchain world by area. As an open-source platform, this Metaverse allows its users to buy digital land, buildings, homes, and a wide range of in-game assets. Due to the immersive dynamics of the virtual world, users can build and monetise anything they want in their lands, such as art galleries, arcades, cinemas, and much more. Thus, Somnium Space will be shaped and built entirely by its users. Additionally, users can also explore the virtual world and interact with other users' creations.

It's worth noting that Somnium Space is currently the most advanced option for anyone looking for a complete Virtual Reality experience. However, it's also available in 2D. The platform continues to update its VR technology, including body, eye, and lip tracking for deeper immersion.

The Sandbox

The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based virtual world and gaming ecosystem where users can own, create, share, and monetise their virtual experiences. Similar to most other virtual blockchain worlds available today, anyone can purchase plots of lands and develop them however they want. Created by Pixowl, The Sandbox is one of the community-driven virtual worlds that aims to change the dynamics of the gaming market. In addition, creators are rewarded for the value they produce through user-generated content. Within this virtual blockchain world, users have absolute ownership over their in-world creations.

In general, The Sandbox is made up of three main products. These include VoxEdit that allows users to create and animate 3D objects, The Sandbox Game Maker that allows users to create 3D games for free; and The Sandbox Marketplace, where users can publish and sell their ASSETS.

CryptoVoxels

CryptoVoxels might be the smallest virtual blockchain world by land area, but it's the only Metaverse that is continually expanding and has no set limit on how big it could grow. There are 3,026 land parcels in CryptoVoxel's original map, but new lands are being created periodically. The map of CryptoVoxel consists of the main city, known as Origin City, where users can find land parcels that anyone can buy and streets that are owned by a governing entity.

For those looking for the easiest virtual blockchain world to start building in, CryptoVoxels might be a great option. Thanks to the platform's user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, users can begin building immediately even if they don't have any skills and experience in programming.

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based game where players can collect, breed, and raise tiny creatures called "Axies." These creatures are digitised as NFTs, so players can sell, buy, and trade them. Besides Axies, there are other assets in Axie Infinity that players can have full ownership of, including land. The map of Axie Infinity is divided into several categories based on rarity tears. These include Lunas Landing (the Centre of the map), Genesis, Mystic, Arctic, Forest, and Savannah. Every land type has special items that can be used in-game by players.

Upland

Unlike other virtual blockchain worlds on this list, Upland offers actual ownership of NFT land parcels mapped to real addresses in the real world. While the virtual real estate in Upland doesn't actually have any association or rights to the correlating properties in real life, the addresses mirror real-world locations. To put it simply, players can purchase and own digital copies of real-world properties, just like in Monopoly.

Other platforms to watch out for include TreeVerse, Mirandus, and DeHorizon, to name a few.