In This Article
Remember the year 2022?
The year when all brands around the world were clamouring for a spot in the Metaverse, where they believed that if you didn’t have a pixelated penthouse or a virtual sneaker drop, you’d be left behind.
Fast forward to 2026, has the Metaverse become yesterday’s VR headset collecting dust in your closet, or is it still the party that cool brands don’t want to miss?
From Land Rush to Lay Low
It all began with virtual gold fever. Everyone, from sneaker behemoths to our neighbourhood namkeen venture, was launching virtual shops or performing VR concerts. The boardroom was abuzz with cryptic terms such as “avatar swag” and “NFT drop,” while the finance teams were crying softly into their keyboards, attempting to rationalise the outlay.
However, once the confetti had been swept away, it dawned on many that creating a Metaverse empire was more expensive than a Mumbai studio apartment and yielded fewer customers than a typical weekday morning at the mall.
Some of them tiptoed away, leaving behind vacant galleries and a whole lot of digital dust.
The Reality Check (with Numbers)
But here’s the twist:
The Metaverse didn’t go away; it simply grew up. Today, in the year 2025, over 750 million people around the globe are hanging out in the virtual world, particularly the Gen Z and the next generation of Alphas, who view Roblox birthdays and Fortnite festivals as necessary social events. [ Statista 2025 ]
In India, the online gaming user base reached 488 million in 2024 and is projected to hit 517 million by 2025, with over 110 million people playing games daily. That’s more people than watch the finals of some real sports leagues. [ Xcelglobalpanel ]
What’s Keeping Brands In?
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Gen Z Still Craves Virtual Cool: For younger consumers, brands existing in Instagram and gaming worlds feel more authentic than billboards. Virtual sneaker searches, try-on experiences, and pop-up parties in gaming worlds? Still popular, if executed well.
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Shopping, But Fun Shopping: It turns out, browsing a shoppable virtual festival is way more fun than clicking through a dull catalogue. And who wouldn’t want to say, “I bought my friend an NFT t-shirt at Holi… virtually”?
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Storytelling Goes Supercharged: Rather than “boring ad here,” brands deliver virtual scavenger hunts, AR collectable drops, or even virtual Holi parties. In 2025, Coca-Cola’s AR Holi experience attracted over a million participants, most of whom forgot that powdered colour doesn’t come out of digital clothes.
What’s Different This Time?
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Fewer, better platforms; no one needs six wallets and three VR headsets anymore.
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Brands are smarter, with activations that actually connect to sales or loyalty, not just vanity metrics.
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It’s part of a whole ecosystem now, your Metaverse event is paired with a real-life discount, Instagram story, or that ever-persistent WhatsApp reminder.
This is a reflection of something much larger than platform-hopping. Brands that are realising real ROI aren’t looking at the Metaverse as a one-off event anymore; they’re integrating it into a much larger digital transformation strategy. When virtual activations sync seamlessly with commerce platforms, CRM systems, and performance channels, the experience stops being experimental and starts becoming measurable.
Should Every Brand Jump In?
Let’s be real
If your audience prefers knitting clubs to Night City, maybe stick to cosy pop-ups.
But if you want to reach the screen-addicted, trend-hunting youth of India, the Metaverse is still your trump card, if you use it with intention, humour, and perhaps a virtual samosa in hand.
For brands operating in this new digital reality, the question isn’t whether to enter the Metaverse but how to integrate it with commerce.
At Seventh Triangle, we’ve learned that immersive experiences are only valuable when integrated into a larger commerce ecosystem, where platforms, performance, data, and customer journeys are interconnected rather than operating in silos.
The bottom line?
The Metaverse is no longer the untamed, uncharted territory it was in 2022, but it’s far from being obsolete. For brands to experiment and engage with it, it still holds the key to digital magic, just swap the VR FOMO for smart, story-driven fun.
