The Metaverse Boom, Brand Experiments, and Apple’s Different Bet

Updated November 2026.

The original metaverse promise mixed several ideas: virtual reality, augmented reality, social worlds, digital goods, and persistent identity. Treating them as one market made it easy to announce a “presence” and hard to explain what customers would actually do there. A branded room with no useful activity is still an empty room.

What Apple actually did

Apple introduced Vision Pro in June 2023 as a device that places apps and media in the user’s physical space. Its announcement listed a starting U.S. price of $3,499. Apple later made the device available in the U.S. on February 2, 2024. That is a different product strategy from asking consumers to spend their day inside a single shared virtual world. It does not mean Apple rejected immersive interfaces.

Why the brand rush deserves scrutiny

The experiments were real but varied. Gucci Town on Roblox offered games, a creative space, and digital items for avatars. Meta described MINI’s MINIVerse in Horizon Worlds as a virtual brand experience. These examples establish what the companies built; neither announcement establishes long-term customer demand or commercial return.

A brand experiment may make sense when customers already use a platform and the experience does something a conventional page or video cannot: try a product at scale, practice a complex task, or participate in a community activity. Without a defined audience and outcome, the campaign can become an expensive press release. Attendance alone says little about repeat use, purchase intent, or customer satisfaction.

Even the leading companies’ own reporting shows that investment is substantial and uncertain. Meta reports Reality Labs as a separate segment covering virtual, augmented, and mixed reality hardware, software, and content, alongside its operating results. See Meta’s 2025 results. Corporate spending is evidence of commitment, not evidence that every brand needs a virtual storefront.

A better test for an immersive campaign

Specify the customer task, the platform where that customer already spends time, and the advantage of an immersive format. Then compare production and moderation costs with a simpler alternative. Measure a meaningful action—completed training, product configuration, repeat participation, or qualified enquiries—alongside reach. Consider accessibility, device availability, privacy, and how the experience will be maintained after launch.

The interesting question is no longer whether the metaverse “won.” It is which immersive tools solve a real problem for a reachable audience. Apple’s approach and Meta’s investments show different bets; neither supplies a universal business case for a brand campaign.