Looking at some of the more sensational headlines about the number of users in the metaverse, it’s easy to wonder how the big brands got so wrong.

Despite pouring billions into building its flagship metaverse experience, Horizon Worlds, Meta is reportedly struggling to win and retain users. Other big names like Sandbox and Decentraland doesn’t seem much better. General interest in the metaverse has tanked; Google search interest in the term dropped more than 80% worldwide over the last year.

Just looking at these heavily capitalized projects might suggest that the metaverse dream is dead. But depending on how you define the term, some metaverse platforms are killing it outright today: Fortnite has 30 million active users and Roblox has 37 million.

So how can…