The Web3 space raised $7.1 billion in funding through 2022, with Gaming, Metaverse and Social Networks being the top three investment categories, according to the Metaverse Post’s end-of-year report.

The report took startups under gaming, metaverse, social, infrastructure, artificial reality and virtual reality (AR&VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) and calculated the exact investment amount raised at $7,169,997,888.

Despite the bear market, the sum is $4.8 billion higher than in 2021.

Category Ranking

The gaming category became the top category of the year, while AI became the last.

Gaming

Gaming was featured as the winning category by raising $4.49 billion, representing 62.5% of the total amount invested in Web3.

According to the report, Epic Games collected the most significant investment in 2022. The company raised $2 billion in funding from Sony and LEGO owner KIRKBI. Epic Games closed the year with a valuation of $31.5 billion.

metaverse

Metaverse followed Gaming as the second most popular category attracting investment in 2022. According to the report, the metaverse sphere raised $1.82 billion in funding, representing 25.4% of total investment.

The creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Yuga Labs became the second company to raise the most funds. In March, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in funding to launch the Otherside metaverse.

Social media

Startups launching social media apps suitable for the secure, decentralized fashion of Web3 were the third most popular category in the eyes of investors. The category raised $259.1 million in 2022, offsetting 3.6% of the total amount invested in Web3.

CryptoSlate exclusive content with Phaver and with Aave and Lens Protocol, as well as Lens Protocol and Polkadot initiatives on the subject, highlight the need for Web3 social networking protocols.

Infrastructure, AR & VR and AI

The bottom three categories were Infrastructure, AR&VR, and AI, at $200.8 million, $178.6 million, and $136.5 million, respectively.

All belonging to the infrastructure category, NFT-focused Immutable, Metaverse-focused Improbable, gaming-focused Sky Mavis and startup-focused AngelList also made it into the top 10 startups attracting the most prominent funding. Immutable raised $200 million in funding, AngelList raised $100 million, while Sky Mavis and Improbable each raised $150 million.

biggest spenders

Four Venture Capital firms were featured as top spenders this year, each saving more than $1 billion in investments.

Of these, Paradigm ranked first by spending $2.5 billion in 2022. The company supported 31 projects, including Uniswap, Magic Eden, and Optimism.

Andreessen Horowitz followed Paradigm in second place with a total investment of $2.2 billion.

The youngest venture capitalist of all, Hivemind, saved $1.5 billion in 2022 and secured third place in the ranking, while Binance Labs became fourth by investing $1 billion.