As Virtual World Grows, Real Cash Marketplace for VRChat Content Emerges

VRChat content creator "Markcreator" (last seen on New World Notes showing off this impressive VRChat-based tribute to Minecraft he built) is now selling buttons for VRChat for USD $12.50. This might not seem like news in itself -- unless you're specifically in the market for VRChat-based buttons -- except that it's another indicator of a larger trend: As VRChat continues to grow in usage and content, a marketplace of VRChat content selling for real world money is starting to emerge.

"The VRChat avatar market is already pretty large on websites like Gumroad," as Mark tells me. This is because VRChat the platform itself does not (yet) have an in-game marketplace of its own -- while the user community does have a pent up demand for quality content for VRChat.

Indeed, a quick search on Gumroad (a site for selling 3D content) turns up over 300 VRChat-tagged items for sale, with some items selling for as high as $80.

"I know multiple people personally that are supplementing or completely sustaining themselves on avatar sales," Mark tells me. "There is much demand from people that wish to express themselves through their avatar, I see a lot of parallels to Second Life in that regard. It will be interesting to see if there is also a sufficiently large market of world creators looking for the next thing to improve their personal projects."

Which brings us back to Mark's buttons:

"After seeing the current state of the resources that are available for VRChat world creation, I feel like getting started on the programming side is too difficult and undocumented for the average person. After seeing how many people are looking for elegant and simple ways to add functionality to their worlds, there's no solution for these people that are not professional coders and are not ready to pay for expensive personalized commissions."

That's why Mark's started a side business of creating drag-and-drop UX elements for VRChat: 

"By doing this I hope to raise the quality floor of what people can create with limited time and budget. I went for a button pack first because most functional things are already controlled with cube buttons in VRChat, and I think most people would appreciate a more physical experience when interacting with things in VRChat, which is one of VR's greatest strengths in my opinion." 

He plans on selling other UX packages in the future, and time will tell if VRChat interfaces can become as thriving a cottage industry as VRChat avatars. (He also has a Patreon for supports of his VRChat content.)

"I am hopeful that the sales will hold up overtime as my following grows and I continue to produce quality assets. I think there is a large enough market of passionate creators that would be interested to make continuous development feasible."

Comments

[Joey1058]

I took a look at Gumroad. This site is awesome. It's not tied specifically to a particular VR world. This means that somewhere up the road, creators can expand their line for any world they see fit to sell to. One more peg in place for the metaverse!