Battle of metaverses: The Sandbox, Decentraland and CryptoVoxels see sales surge as companies look to get in on the ground floor

• Sale of land within metaverse The Sandbox accounted for a quarter of all non-fungible tokens’ (NFTs) sales in the last one week.
• Companies are spending millions to get in on the ground floor and secure prime real estate within these crypto virtual worlds.
• The creation of metaverses is spurring changes in other sectors, like consumer technology, as well.

Real estate in the metaverse is selling like hot pockets, and for crazy amounts of money. Accordingly to NonFungible.com, more than $300 million worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were sold last week — almost a quarter of sales were for digital land in The Sandbox metaverse.

Sales of digital realty in metaverses from November 29 to December 5

Metaverse project	Sales in the last 7 days	Number of assets sold
The Sandbox	$70.5 milion	4,433
Decentraland	$6.6 million	399
CryptoVoxels	$650,000	81

Source: NonFunglible.com’s weekly newsletter

While The Sandbox is raking in the most sales, individual plots within Decentraland are more expensive. All of the top 10 sales, with the most expensive clocking in at $758,250, were for digital land within Decentraland.

Companies want to get in on the ground floor of the metaverse
Spending millions for land that doesn’t actually exist in the real world may not fit everyone’s appetite, but crypto enthusiasts are hoping to get in on the ground floor before prices get even higher.

US-based firm Republic Realm, for instance, told the Wall Street Journal that it spent a record $4.3 million for digital land within The Sandbox on November 30. Meanwhile, The purchase broke the previous all-time-high held by Tokens.com, which purchased land in Decentraland for a whopping $2.4 million last month for a prime patch of real estate within the platform’s Fashion Street district.

Grayscale, the largest digital assets investment company in the world, pegs that the value of these virtual gaming worlds could grow from $180 billion in 2020 to $400 million by 2025. Crypto exchanges, like Binance and others, have established digital headquarters within the metaverse where employees can meet and collaborate. The old-school video game giant, Atari, recently announced the Atari arcade, where players within Decentraland can come in and play mini-games.

Moreover, even artists like SnoopDogg are getting in on the trend, by hosting concerts within the metaverse — which is smart, considering the restrictions and risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Swiss multinational investment bank, UBS, the metaverse is also having an impact on the consumer tech segment, especially with Facebook expected to increase capital spending as it focuses on the metaverse.


Metaverses, or crypto virtual worlds, are in the midst of creating a multi-million dollar market for creators and asset owners. However, as compared to the rest of the crypto world, the metaverse is still in its nascent stages.

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