A comparison of virtual worlds based on the metaverse maturity model

The realization and adoption of the metaverse vision is still in its infancy. In order to answer the question of how close today's virtual worlds get to this metaverse vision, the metaverse maturity model has been applied to evaluate a sample of eight selected virtual worlds: Guild Wars 2, Fortnite, Second Life, Roblox, VRChat, Decentraland, Horizon Worlds, and The Sandbox. The model comprises eight core attributes with five maturity levels each. The results indicate that, on the one hand, technical preconditions for the metaverse, e.g.,sufficient computing power, network technology, and interoperability standards, are not yet met. On the other hand, core attributes which mainly depend on strategy, e.g., persistence and economic systems can yield high maturity levels, if the strategy is aligned accordingly. As the study shows the usefulness of the metaverse maturity model, future research should repeatedly evaluate metaverse maturity to track progress and identify the need for further development.