According to a study, the adoption of Metaverse technologies in the sports sector accelerated due to the virtual success of the World Cup Qatar.
The Sports in the Metaverse study, conducted by analytics company Web3 Studios, found that sports Metaverses are growing rapidly and will reach $80 billion by 2030.
Analysts called the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 a game changer for the entire sports Metaverse industry. Thanks to a broad representation of the World Cup in virtual space, the sector has received a boost for active development in the next seven years.
Recently, at the initiative of Coca-Cola, digital artist GMUNK created the NFT collection on Crypto.com, which was inspired by the key moments of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Espanyol FC, backed by Crypto Snack, became the first sports organization to implement large-scale crypto payments.
Analysts identified several key prerequisites for further adoption of Metaverse technologies in the sports sector:
- increased demand for immersive experiences within sporting events;
- growth in the number of sports fans among the younger generation;
- development of the technological landscape to improve the Metaverse.
The report also indicated that the popularity of cybersport would be one of the drivers of the sports Metaverse industry. According to analysts, popular games such as Dota2, League of Legends, and Fortnite, which have over 100 million users, can implement elements of Web 3.0 in the near future.
It’s worth noting that the popularity of virtual space is growing in many areas of using Metaverses. For example, a recent report from Booking.com showed that about half of travelers are inspired by virtual reality when planning their trips. Exploring a location in a Metaverse space encourages 46% of travelers to visit them in the real world. And 35% are willing to travel exclusively in virtual space.
According to the study by uSwitch, the Netherlands is the most prepared country to introduce Metaverse technologies.
