Metaverse: everyone was talking about it, but now no one mentions it anymore

There was a time, a few seasons ago, when it was all anyone talked about, and not being part of it triggered suffocating bouts of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Today, the Metaverse phenomenon, while still lingering in its (virtual) reality, has deflated. What happened to it, and what will become of it?

by Massimiliano Viti

There was a time when fashion seemed destined to move elsewhere, to virtual worlds that – based on promises and premises – seemed infinite. Today, a few years after the Metaverse boom, the silence surrounding many of those experiences tells a different story. Perhaps we cannot call it an end, but certainly a drastic downsizing. Like that experienced by Metaverse Fashion Week, which took place regularly last April on the Decentreland platform, but with much less resonance than the 108,000 people in 2022, reduced to 26,000 the following year. Will we see it again in 2026? Perhaps.

The fall of the Metaverse

The issue of the Metaverse is summed up in the words spoken in June 2023 by Stefano Beraldo, CEO of OVS, an Italian fashion retail brand and chain: ‘Artificial intelligence and the Metaverse are far from being a priority for CEOs‘. Almost three years later, we can say that he was not far off the mark about artificial intelligence, to the point that today, AI, if not at the top of the priority list, is very close to it. The Metaverse, on the other hand, has plummeted, ending up in oblivion. And Meta’s latest decisions could truly spell the end of a virtual world that faded away before it even exploded. Overtaken and crushed by Artificial Intelligence.

Metamirage?

It was 28 October 2021 when Mark Zuckerberg announced that from then on, Facebook would become Meta. It was not just a name change, but a clear indication of where the company was heading: towards a new technological era driven by VR (Virtual Reality) devices. At the time, Meta’s vision was that the Metaverse would be the next big social platform, where users would connect in a virtual world via the Horizon Worlds app and play with their VR headsets. Despite the scepticism, Meta’s conviction prompted many other companies to follow suit and focus on virtual reality (Microsoft, Nvidia, Disney and Tinder, for example) and launch related projects.

Initial scepticism

Fashion and luxury brands also began to explore the new virtual world. They were immediately divided between those who believed that the Metaverse would be the future and those who were less convinced and preached caution. Even the two big names in luxury, Bernard Arnault of LVMH and François-Henri Pinault of Kering, had different opinions. The former was much more sceptical and pragmatic. The latter was more confident and ready to ride the wave. The former had the handbrake on. The latter had his foot on the accelerator. It was no coincidence that Kering had created a team dedicated to Web 3.0 and the Metaverse. Both Gucci and Balenciaga had independent offices with the same purpose. “The Metaverse will become both an opportunity and a disruptive phenomenon,” Pinault said.

Four years later

Four years on, we know for sure who was right and who was wrong. But Pinault was not the only one who believed in it. Analysts such as McKinsey & Co. and Citi had published exciting estimates that the Metaverse would become a multi-billion-dollar platform by 2030. Many jumped on the bandwagon led by Zuckerberg, only to jump off as soon as it became clear that it was going nowhere. Now, four years later, the bandwagon is being put back in the garage.

70 billion dollars in losses

In January 2026, it was revealed that Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality division, had accumulated losses of $70 billion in recent years, proving to be one of the most egregious mistakes made by the creator of Facebook. Approximately 1,500 employees in the division will be laid off, and planned investments will be channelled into divisions developing wearable hardware, mobile devices and – surprise, surprise – AI devices.

The reasons for failure

There are many reasons for this failure. First: poor timing. The Metaverse was a project that was never clearly marketed when, after the pandemic, people were eager to immerse themselves in the real world again, instead of wearing bulky and uncomfortable headsets. Second: virtual environments that were difficult to navigate and in which socialising was not so easy. But the biggest mistake was conceptual. In recent years, the online and offline worlds have been converging more and more, while the Metaverse tends to isolate us from reality and make us live only in the virtual world. Some say that the Metaverse is not dead and that it could return in other forms. In fact, people still want to explore digital and connected worlds: Artificial Intelligence could facilitate personalised and attractive gaming and social experiences.

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