UPDATE February 26th, 2024: Be warned that this list is VERY out-of-date! I am currently working to update and reorganize it, starting with the comparative spreadsheet of social VR platforms (see the blue box, below).
Also, effective today, I will no longer be writing about any metaverse platform which incorporates blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and/or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Enough is enough! I have also removed all such links from this list, although the individual blogposts I wrote from 2017 to 2023 are still there if you wish to search for them.
using Marvelous Designer (picture taken Oct. 10th, 2019)
I realize that this very long list (with now over 160 entries!) can be a little overwhelming, and I do apologize for its current state. In 2024, I do plan to reorganize it by category to make it easier to navigate, but it is a rather time-consuming task, like herding cats. Please bear with me; the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has thrown a monkey-wrench into this project!
UPDATE April 8th, 2024: For an updated and expanded comparison chart of the features of fifteen social VR platforms, please click here.
UPDATE April 11th, 2024: Sadly, XRCollaboration.com’s Directory of Collaborative XR Platforms, which aimed to be a central repository of detailed information about XR collaboration products and platforms, no longer exists. In fact, the website appears to have been sold to somebody who is posting articles about how to find out if your man is cheating on you! 😉 Therefore, I am no longer linking to it.
UPDATE March 18th, 2022: I have discovered another list (and accompanying detailed infographic) by a consulting company called Metaversed, called The Metaverse Directory: Virtual Worlds from A to Z. I quite like the way Metaversed has organized and categorized its inforgraphic, in a way which is strikingly aligned with my own way of thinking about the topic! More information here.
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).
UPDATE February 26th, 2024: Please note that there are now three categories of metaverse platforms which I will not endeavour to cover on this list:
- Products aimed at the teen/tween market (mostly on mobile devices, e.g. IMVU);
- Purely sexually oriented or “adult” virtual worlds and social VR; and
- Platforms incorporating blockchain, cryptocurrencies, or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
I will leave the herding of those particular categories of cats to other people 😉 I’ve got my hands full as it is!
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 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.
PLEASE NOTE: Platforms marked with an asterisk (*) support users in VR headsets. Please note that in some cases, VR support is experimental or still in beta. Platforms marked with a dagger (†) are those still-rare platforms which support users in augmented reality (AR) headsets, such as the Microsoft Hololens, the Magic Leap One, or the brand-new Apple Vision Pro. Please note that I do not consider cellphone-based “AR” (e.g. Pokémon Go) to be true augmented reality.
- Aardvark*
- Acadicus*
- Active Worlds (the granddaddy of all virtual worlds, launched on June 28th, 1995, and now twenty-eight years old!)
- Alcove VR*
- Alloverse* (not yet available)
- AltspaceVR* (UPDATE Feb. 6th, 2023: AltspaceVR shut down on March 10th, 2023.)
- 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*
- Cheerio*
- 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)
- Core
- Dance Central*
- 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)
- Eventual VR*
- Ever, Jane
- The Expanse*
- Facebook Spaces* (which closed on October 25th, 2019)
- Flowtropolis* (not yet available)
- ForeVR*
- FRAME*, by VirBELA
- Fundamental Surgery* by FundamentalVR, a surgical training platform
- Galaxity*
- Gather (a 2D virtual world with video and audio)
- Geekzonia* (which appears to have closed down)
- Glue*
- Guru Gedara*
- Half + Half*
- Helios*
- Help Club* (a new social VR platform for peer-based mental health and addiction intervention and support)
- HEMOSY and Project Polis* (still in early development)
- High Fidelity* (the pioneering social VR platform, which shut down on Jan. 15th, 2020; please note that the New High Fidelity is a completely separate product, a 2D space with 3D audio, which launched on May 22nd, 2020, and has been implemented on a number of metaverse platforms)
- Hoppin’*
- Horizon Venues* (formerly called Oculus Venues; for Gear VR, Oculus Go, and Oculus Quest users)
- Horizon Workrooms*, a collaborative VR platform for remote workteams launched by Facebook on August 19th, 2021, for the Quest 2
- Horizon Worlds* (formerly known as Facebook Horizon; now open to the public aged 18+ in Canada and the United States)
- Hypatia*
- Hyperfair VR*
- Immersed*
- IMVU
- Inlight Spark*
- InsiteVR*
- UPDATE April 8th, 2024: InSpaze† (a social app for the Apple Vision Pro headset)
- 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
- MasterpieceVR*
- meetingRoom*
- MeetinVR* (not yet available)
- MegaCryptoPolis
- 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)
- Nanome* (a social VR platform for molecular design in chemistry)
- NeoWorld
- Neutrans*
- New Art City
- NOYS VR*
- Oasis* (an adult virtual world, now closed)
- Oasis* (different from the first Oasis, a Chinese platform akin to VRChat)
- Occupy White Walls
- Oculus Home*
- Oculus Rooms* (which closed on October 25th, 2019)
- 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
- Overte* (a free and open source social VR platform based on the original High Fidelity source code)
- Oxford Medical Simulation*
- Pararea*
- Planet Theta* (not yet available)
- Playable Worlds (not yet available)
- Pluto VR*
- PokerStars VR*
- Prospect*
- Raspberry Dream Land* (currently invite-only)
- Rec Room*
- Redpill VR*
- REMIO* (a full-service social VR company for business)
- Relm (a browser-based virtual world for support groups, team meetings, and life coaches)
- Remotely
- Riff XR*
- Roblox*
- ROND
- Roomkey (formerly called Teooh)
- RP1 (a business-to-business service offering shardless scalability to other metaverse projects)
- Rumii*
- Sansar* (a social VR platform developed by Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life; recently sold to Wookey, the platform has pivoted to focus on live events)
- SapphireXR*
- ScienceVR* (offering web-based social VR on science and literature topics)
- SculptrVR*
- Second Life (Now over twenty years old, and still among the most commercially successful and popular virtual worlds to date, with approximately 900,000 regular monthly users during the recent coronavirus pandemic)
- Seed (an MMORPG/virtual world hybrid, still in development)
- Sinespace* (a Unity-based virtual world that supports VR)
- Skittish
- Spatial*† (a social augmented reality/virtual reality app for work collaboration)
- Spatiate† (a social augmented reality app for art creation)
- Spinview
- STAGE*
- Stageverse*
- STYLY*
- SurrealVR*
- Teemew
- Teleporter*
- There.com
- Threedium
- Tivoli Cloud VR* (a fork of the open-source High Fidelity software code, which closed in February 2022)
- Topik*
- Twinity
- Utherverse/Red Light Center (an adult virtual world)
- UXR.ZONE*
- VirBELA*
- Vircadia* (formerly known as Project Athena, a fork of the open-source High Fidelity software code; )
- Virtual Paradise
- Viveport Verse*
- 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 were closing in July 2019)
- 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!
