By 2020 , manufacturers were shipping more than 5mn shipments of virtual reality ( VR ) and augmented reality ( AR ) headsets per year . There is a consensus that , although the metaverse could be accessed in a number of ways , consumers will need an immersive headset to take full advantage .

In 2021 , Facebook positioned itself to capitalise on the future of the metaverse by rebranding its parent company as Meta . It also announced it would invest US $ 10bn and hire 10,000 in Europe to build out a metaverse .

The word ‘ metaverse ’ came runner-up in a public vote to determine the Oxford English Dictionary ’ s word of the year – on its 30th birthday , no less . The word became one of the hottest fintech buzzwords of the year and investors spent millions acquiring virtual real estate in the metaverse .

According to analysts , the global metaverse industry will be worth nearly US $ 100bn by 2030 – almost 50 times what it ’ s worth today . But adoption will be defined largely by the number of people buying VR headsets . In the US alone , around 15 % of people own a VR headset today , compared with 53 % for tablet computers .

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