Gaming, Metaverse, and Social Networks were the Web3 categories that attracted the most investment in 2022, accounting for $2.3 billion, $2.2 billion and $1.9 billion respectively.
According to Metaverse Post’s year-end report, the Web3 space raised a total of $7.1 billion in funding during 2022, with Gaming, Metaverse, and Social Networks being the top three investment categories. This figure of $7,169,997,888 was $4.8 billion higher than the amount raised in 2021, encouraging the fledgling sector greatly. Gaming was the most funded sector, suggesting that this is likely to hold the most lucrative rewards for investors and developers moving forward.
Gaming
Gaming was the most invested-in industry in Web3 in 2022, with $4.49 billion raised, accounting for 62.5% of the total amount invested. Epic Games, with a $2 billion investment from Sony and KIRKBI, the owner of LEGO, was the largest recipient. It closed the year with a $31.5 billion valuation.
Metaverse
In 2022, Metaverse was the second most popular category for investment, coming in just behind Gaming. According to the Metaverse Post’s report, the sector saw a total of $1.82 billion raised, representing 25.4% of the overall investment. The company that received the largest sum was Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which in March raised $450 million for their Otherside metaverse project.
Social Networks
In 2022, investors contributed $259.1 million to the development of decentralised and secure social networking apps for Web3, making it the third most popular category. This represented 3.6% of the total investment in Web3-related projects. CryptoSlate, Aave, Lens Protocol, and Phaver have all released exclusive content focusing on the need for Web3 social network protocols. Additionally, both Lens Protocol and Polkadot have created initiatives in this area.
Other Areas of Investment
Infrastructure ($200m), AR/VR ($178m), and AI ($136.5m) also received significant investment, but not to the extent of gaming and metaverses. Some of the major investments in these spaces include Immutable (NFT-focused, with $200 million in funding), Improbable (metaverse-focused, $150 million), Sky Mavis (gaming-focused, $150 million), and AngelList (start-up-focused, $100 million).
The major investments in the space were the result of four key VC firms – Paradigm ($2.5bn), Andreessen Horowitz ($2.2bn), Hivemind ($1.5bn), and Binance Labs ($1bn). With Web3 investments tripling between 2021 and 2023, it will be interesting to see how 2023 fares and whether this market will continue to outperform others.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Crypto-News
