Comprehensive List of Social VR Platforms and Virtual Worlds

I realize that this very long list (with now over 150 entries!) can be a little overwhelming, and I do apologize for its current state. This year, I do plan to reorganize it by category to make it easier to navigate, but it is a time-consuming task, like herding cats.

The following spreadsheet covers what I consider the “Top 16” most popular social VR platforms (and yes, “popular” is subjective):

For an updated and expanded comparison chart of the features of sixteen social VR platforms, please click here (November 2019).

I will be keeping this list of virtual worlds, social VR apps, and metaverse platforms up-to-date as I cover both old and new products, as a sort of comprehensive index to my website (you can find definitions of these terms here).

You might also be interested in my new list of non-combat, open-world exploration and/or puzzle and/or life simulation games. For example, Fortnite recently launched Party Royale Island, an open-ended, non-combat extension to the phenomenally popular online game, as a means for gamers to socialize and a venue for concerts.

Platforms marked with an asterisk (*) support users in VR headsets. In some cases, VR support is experimental or still in beta.

Platforms marked with a dagger (†) support users in augmented reality (AR) headsets, such as the Microsoft Hololens or the Magic Leap One. Please note that I do not consider cellphone-based “AR” (e.g. Pokémon Go) to be true augmented reality.

UPDATE August 18th, 2020: In response to this press release, I will be personally boycotting Facebook/Oculus products and services, including the forthcoming Facebook Horizon social VR platform, which is expected to be launched in beta sometime in late 2020. However, I will still write about them on this blog—just not from a first-person perspective. More information here.

• Aardvark*
• Acadicus*
• Active Worlds (the granddaddy of all virtual worlds, launched on June 28th, 1995, and now a quarter-century old!)
• Aether City
• Alcove VR*
• Alloverse* (not yet available)
• AltspaceVR*
• Anarchy Arcade*
• Anyland*
• Apertus VR*
• Art Gate*
• Arthur*
• Atom Universe
• AvaCon
• Avakin Life
• Avatar Chat† (formerly called Social; the first social augmented reality app, for the Magic Leap One headset)
• AviLife (not yet available)
• Bean VR* (which appears to have closed down)
• Beloola
• Bigscreen*
• Blue Mars (now closed, as far as I know)
• Breakroom* (by Sinespace)
• Capsa*
• Ceek*
• ChilloutVR*
• Cisco Spark in VR* (Cisco shut down this project in October 2018)
• Cloud Party (officially closed in 2014 after they were bought out by Yahoo!)
• Cluster*
• Community Garden* (now closed; as of Oct. 30th, 2018, this platform has been merged into Somnium Space)
• Cryptovoxels* (a blockchain-based virtual world that supports VR)
• Dance Central*
• Decentraland (a blockchain-based virtual world)
• The Deep (closed)
• Dimension10*
• Districts* (not yet available, as far as I can tell)
• DiveReal*
• Dream*
• Dreams (a game and world-building platform for PlayStation)
• Dual Universe (I would classify this as an MMO/MMORPG instead of a virtual world)
• Edorble*
• Elysium VR* (not yet available)
• EmbodyMe*
• Endless Riff*
• ENGAGE*
• EpicLive* (not yet available)
• Ethernia (a very funny parody of a blockchain-based virtual world)
• Eventual VR*
• Ever, Jane
• The Expanse*
• Facebook Horizon* (currently in invite-only beta testing)
• Facebook Spaces* (which closed on October 25th, 2019)
• Flowtropolis* (not yet available)
• FRAME*, by VirBELA
• Galaxity*
• Gather (a 2D virtual world with video and audio)
• Geekzonia* (which appears to have closed down)
• Glue*
• Guru Gedara*
• Half + Half*
• Helios*
• HEMOSY and Project Polis* (still in early development)
• High Fidelity* (which essentially shut down on Jan. 15th, 2020, although existing accounts can still use the program; the New High Fidelity is a completely separate platform, a 2D space with 3D audio, which launched on May 22nd, 2020)
• Hoppin’*
• Hypatia*
• Hyperfair VR*
• Immersed*
• IMVU
• Inlight Spark*
• InsiteVR*
• InWorldz (This grid closed on July 27th, 2018.)
• Islandz Virtual World (the successor to InWorldz; closed in February 2019)
• JanusXR* (formerly known as JanusVR)
• Jel
• Kitely (an OpenSim grid, which has also announced that they are working on a fork of the open-source High Fidelity software code)
• Lavender*
• LearnBrite*
• LivCloser (intended to be an adult virtual world, from what I can tell)
• LiveLike*
• Manova* by XRSpace
• MARK.SPACE
• MasterpieceVR*
• MATERIA.ONE* (formerly called Staramba Spaces; not yet available)
• meetingRoom*
• MeetinVR* (not yet available)
• MegaCryptoPolis
• MetaWorld* (not yet available)
• Metrix VR*
• Mozilla Hubs*
• Museum of Other Realities*
• Myst Online: Uru Live (although I would classify this as an MMO/MMORPG rather than a virtual world)
• NeosVR*
• NeoWorld
• Neutrans*
• Oasis* (an adult virtual world)
• Oasis* (different from the first Oasis, a Chinese app)
• Occupy White Walls
• Oculus Home* (this one is only for Oculus Rift users)
• Oculus Rooms* (which closed on October 25th, 2019)
• Oculus Venues* (for Gear VR, Oculus Go, and Oculus Quest users)
• Online Town (a 2D virtual world with video and audio)
• OpenSim based virtual worlds (e.g. OSGrid); here’s a list of active OpenSim grids
• Oxford Medical Simulation*
• Pararea*
• Pluto VR*
• PokerStars VR*
• Prospect*
• Rec Room*
• Redpill VR*
• Remotely
• Roblox*
• Rumii*
• The Sandbox (a blockchain-based virtual world; not yet available)
• Sansar* (a social VR platform developed by Linden Lab, the makers of Second Lofe; recently sold to Wookey)
• SculptrVR*
• Second Life (Now over 17 years old, and still the most commercially successful and popular virtual world to date, with approximately 900,000 regular monthly users. Note: If you are looking for the Second Life freebies section of this blog, please scroll down and select “Second Life Steals, Deals and Freebies” from the Categories section, or just click here.)
• Seed (an MMORPG/virtual world hybrid, still in development)
• Sensorium Galaxy* (not yet launched)
• Sinespace* (a Unity-based virtual world that supports VR)
• Somnium Space* (a blockchain-based virtual world that supports VR)
• Spatial*† (a social augmented reality/virtual reality app for work collaboration)
• Spatiate† (a social augmented reality app for art creation)
• Spinview
• STAGE*
• Stan World
• STYLY*
• SuperWorld
• SurrealVR*
• Teemew
• Teleporter*
• Teooh
• Terra Virtua (not yet available)
• There.com
• Threedium
• Tivoli Cloud VR* (a fork of the open-source High Fidelity software code)
• Topik*
• Twinity
• Utherverse/Red Light Center (an adult virtual world)
• UXR.ZONE*
• VIBEHub
• VirBELA*
• Vircadia* (formerly known as Project Athena, a fork of the open-source High Fidelity software code)
• Virtual Paradise
• Virtual Universe* (a promising-looking social VR/MMO hybrid, which unfortunately folded after failing to reach its ICO target)
• Vizible*
• VR Conference* by Mixtive and Telia
• VR Triber*
• VR Trivia Battle* (formerly known as Kiss or Kill)
• VRAVO!*
• VRChat*
• VRLand*
• vSpatial*
• vTime XR* (formerly known as just vTime)
• Wave* (formerly known as TheWaveVR)
• The Wild*
• Wonda VR*
• Worlds Adrift (I would classify this as an MMO/MMORPG instead of a virtual world; they announced they are closing in July 2019)
• XANA (“coming very soon!”)
• 3DX Chat* (an adult virtual world)

Well, I figure this is pretty much the canonical listing of social VR/virtual world platforms. Have I missed any? It’s like Pokémon, “gotta catch ’em all”…if you have heard of one that I haven’t covered yet, please let me know via the Contact page of my blog, thanks!