How Much Does it Cost to Build Your Own Metaverse Platform Like Decentraland?

Imagine being able to create your own digital oasis, build your own 3D game or application, or design a bustling marketplace for users to explore in a virtual environment of the metaverse.

Welcome to the world of metaverse platforms like Decentraland, where possibilities are endless, and creativity knows no bounds.

Decentraland allows users to play social games, trade in digital real estate, interact with people, develop infrastructure, and buy and sell digital assets from users all around the world.

Being one of the most unique and marvelous technological innovations of mankind, metaverse platforms like Decentraland continue to create immense business opportunities. As an innovative and exciting project of the blockchain space, the Decentraland marketplace has drawn the attention of the stakeholders and entrepreneurs who have grand plans in their minds for what they can make with this idea.

As a result, this has also left them wondering about the Decentraland metaverse development cost. The Decentraland platform development cost can go anywhere between $40,000 to $300,000 depending on certain influencing factors that make up the overall cost.

In this blog, we will discuss what Decentraland is all about, the factors affecting the cost of building a metaverse like Decentraland, aspects to consider while building a Decentraland metaverse platform, and its development process. Let’s explore this further.

Decentraland is Beyond Gaming

Decentraland is an online platform that lets users use MANA, Decentraland’s native cryptocurrency, to purchase, trade, and construct a virtual property. Despite being largely promoted as a game platform, Decentraland is much more than that. Beyond gaming, Decentraland has many uses, including online learning, social networking, and virtual conferences. Users can participate in virtual conferences and events, for instance, network with other participants, watch presentations, and even buy fictitious things.

Decentraland also has the potential to transform the real estate sector. Users can construct and sell virtual real estate with virtual land ownership, developing a new market for digital assets.

One of the topmost features of Decentraland is to allow people to create and commercialize their own virtual experiences. This means that Decentraland can be used as a platform for companies, schools, artists, and other producers to display their products, impart knowledge, and much more.

Decentraland is moreover based on the Ethereum blockchain, making it capable of supporting various decentralized apps (dApps) and smart contracts. This makes a variety of use cases, such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and supply chain management which go beyond games and virtual experiences, possible.

Overall, while gaming is a significant use case for Decentraland, its potential extends much beyond that. As a result, we can anticipate a wide variety of future applications and use cases for metaverse platforms like Decentraland.

A Brief Analysis of the Decentraland Marketplace

The popularity of a metaverse platform like Decentraland can be determined by the daily number of active Decentraland addresses in the month of March 2023. MANA, the coin that runs the metaverse Decentraland, experienced more network activity since the beginning of the year 2023 with a huge number of visitors, thereby boosting overall engagement. 

As per Similarweb, in March 2023, the Decentraland website had 636.7K active users, which has been increasing over the last few months. 

Also, according to DappRadar, Decentraland has seen a 14.15% increase in the number of unique active wallets interacting with their metaverse-based project in March 2023. This has resulted in a corresponding rally in the total number of transactions made between the wallets and Decentraland’s smart contracts. 

Additionally, 17,450 transactions were completed in March 2023, representing a 26.08% increase in transaction count. Thus, now is the right time to invest in a Decentraland-like metaverse app that can help your business redefine the rapidly evolving digital virtual space. 

What is the Cost of Building a Metaverse Like Decentraland?

To gauge the approximate cost of building a metaverse platform like Decentraland, it is crucial to first understand the technological infrastructure, type of industry, and complexity of the application. The average cost can be anywhere around $40,000 to $300,000. Let’s check out the different factors that affect the overall cost of building a virtual world like Decentraland.

(Also read: Exploring the Opportunities, Expenditure and Steps to Develop Metaverse in HealthCare)

1. Type of Industries 

When it comes to metaverse development cost, the sector for which the metaverse is designed makes a substantial contribution to the final Decentraland development cost. Gaming, social media, and real estate are the main businesses embracing the idea of the metaverse.

Gaming 

One of the biggest sectors advancing the metaverse market is the gaming industry. The cost of creating a metaverse for the gaming business depends on the complexity of the gaming application infrastructure, which also affects its features, map packs, levels, and multiplayer capabilities. But we may infer that the price of a gaming metaverse can range from $25,000 to $400,000.

Real Estate

Space in the virtual world is also bought and sold, much like real-world real estate. Since the metaverse is now getting widely accepted and implemented, people are buying land in the virtual world with the aid of virtual currencies, NFT, etc., because they want to be a part of it. As a result, the average price of real estate in the metaverse is between $13,000 and $300,000.

Social Media

Nearly all industries have the largest audiences on social media; therefore, bringing these businesses into the metaverse will take a lot of work. A competitive advantage for the metaverse could come from an immersive metaverse user experience, security, and overall metaverse design. However, the overall cost to create a social media metaverse platform can range anywhere between $30,000 to $400,000.

2. Designing UI/UX

The metaverse application’s user interface captures the essence of the brand’s uniqueness overall, and an engaging user experience design makes sure everything runs smoothly. The cost to create a metaverse can change depending on the particular design needs, which requires the design team to invest a lot of time and work. The entire Decentraland platform development cost increases with how flawless and beautiful the design is. 

3. Metaverse Application Features

For building a Decentraland metaverse platform, you need to implement cutting-edge features and technologies that allow users to interact seamlessly with each other and trade with digital assets. Some of the key features should include a robust infrastructure, interactive digital avatars, and end-to-end cyber security features. Many other features can be added to create a metaverse like Decentraland marketplace. However, it will add up to the overall cost. 

4. Metaverse Technology Stack

In order to get multiple worlds to interact with each other, it is essential to combine the best technologies that create a powerful metaverse platform like the Decentraland. Here is a list of the top technologies that are utilized in creating an immersive world.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) assists in creating digital avatars that facilitate natural interactions and interfaces in the virtual world with a variety of linguistic and cultural accessibility. Along with offering a dependable and scalable metaverse experience, AI aids in quality design.
• AR & VR is one of the most well-liked metaverse technologies for simulating actual circumstances. These top-notch technologies make it feasible to design the real world using virtual input. AR glasses and lenses can enable virtual assistants to augment the real world with the help of AI.
• Blockchain enables users to ensure speedier virtual transactions. It enables decentralized digital ownership, transfer, availability, governance, and device interoperability.
• A significant amount of visual design and image gathering is necessary to produce a realistic-looking scene, which the technology of 3D modeling can do. With computer graphics, 3D modeling makes it possible for users to feel at ease in the virtual environment.

5. Size of the Development Team 

Another element that influences the Decentraland metaverse development cost process is the size of the team. In order to develop a metaverse app like Decentraland you can either hire a freelancer or a reputed tech agency. Hiring freelancers can simply reduce your overall development budget, but their lack of expertise won’t be able to deliver a high-quality and robust mobile app that speaks volumes. 

However, if you work with a globally renowned mobile app development company like Appinventiv, which has an extensive team of developers, designers, tech specialists, and analysts who will oversee the development project under the direction of a project developer, you can ensure a scalable app that brings huge returns at an optimized cost. 

6. Developer’s Location

One of the key elements determining the Decentraland virtual world development cost is the location of the developers or development team. For instance, the cost of development may be lower if businesses or organizations hire an Asian development team rather than one from another region of the world. The various geographic regions’ exchange rates have the biggest impact on the development process’ overall costs. Hiring US-based companies would cost between $80 and $100 per hour, whereas, in India, the cost would be around $40 and $80 per hour on average. 

Aspects to Consider While Building a Virtual World Like Decentraland

Experts now consider the metaverse as the next evolution of digital space and the internet. It is now undoubtedly the upcoming future that is quite evident from its signs of growth and rapid adoption across multiple industries. If you wish to create your own metaverse, here are some crucial factors you cannot afford to miss. 

• With metaverse platforms seen as prolific rising social features, it has become very important for you to adopt social features like guild mechanics and co-off gameplay. In this way, the metaverse platform you are building will be completely set to offer a realistic experience effectively. 
• Infrastructure and digital avatars are the two most important features that ensure continuous connectivity to virtual reality. It is also essential to have a super fast internet speed that can offer a seamless experience of the virtual world. Your metaverse platform should even allow the users to duplicate or recreate their favorite characters that can communicate sentiments and emotions. 
• Other than that, security features are also a major point of concern for the user as cybercriminals are exponentially targeting the internet. Therefore, it is vital to consider the privacy, security, and cyber ethics of the metaverse platform development.

How to Create Your Own Metaverse?

The process to create a metaverse platform is not straightforward. Given that it necessitates extensive planning in advance and numerous resources, it is a challenging and complex task. Let’s examine the entire step-by-step procedure to build a metaverse like Decentraland.

1. Business & Requirement Analysis 

To begin creating a metaverse, you must decide on the commercial aspect of the project and conduct a market, competition, and target market analysis. The metaverse app development experts will conduct a thorough business analysis and research before they begin the actual development process. The team creates an outline for finalizing the complete set of features and outlook of the application, after which they contact the key project stakeholder to discuss the vision of the metaverse app.

2. UI/UX Design for Apps

After that, the system’s information architecture is constructed, user flows are developed and improved, and the UI/UX team creates the user interface design. They will produce a prototype, which will be an animated representation of the user interface in its final form.

3. Testing

Before releasing the software, QA professionals test it for bugs, functionality, usability, load, and compliance with the requirements given in the technical task. Typically, all of this takes about 20% of the development time. Smart contracts that your application uses must also be tested.

4. Deploy

The application is deployed to local or cloud servers after it has been developed and extensively tested. If this is a mobile application, it needs to be added to the various app shops, such as the App Store, Microsoft Store, Google Play, and others.

5. Release and Promote Your App

Once the testing and deployment of your metaverse app have gone well, you are now prepared to launch the app. However, it is crucial to adhere to Apple’s or Google’s developer requirements before launching your app on the App Store or Play Store. 

Additionally, you must also be ready with your monetization strategies. Following a successful App Store launch, you can now promote your Decentraland app on various social media platforms to reach a wider audience.

What sets Appinventiv apart in the Metaverse App Development Market

Metaverse and Web 3.0 is creating a new digital economy that is already unleashing countless potential and prodigious creativity.  

Even though the metaverse is still in its early stages of development, amazing things are being anticipated. Numerous businesses and startups have already begun to adjust to the metaverse and are looking to determine the Decentraland metaverse development cost that can put their business on the trajectory of artificial intelligence services. And if you still are exploring its limitless opportunities, initiate your dream metaverse project with Appinventiv.

A globally leading metaverse development company like Appinventiv has experts who are well-adept and experienced in creating innovative metaverse apps for different industries. Working with multiple globally recognized brands like IKEA, Dominos, KFC, and others has made us the most trusted organization that excels in enhancing user engagement with robust applications. Have a glimpse at our portfolio to learn about the type of startups, enterprises, and Fortune 500 companies whom we have worked with.

Be the next Decentraland today. Connect with our metaverse experts now. 

FAQs

Q. How do you make a metaverse like Decentraland?

A. A metaverse platform must include engaging gameplay, intuitive user interfaces, effective technology, safe payment methods, and community-building features. Unity and Unreal Engine, Web 3.0 technologies, virtual and augmented reality, cloud computing, and backend technologies are the best technology stacks for developing a metaverse platform.

Q. How much does it cost to develop a metaverse?

A. Depending on the features and functionalities, UI/UX design complexities, the number of advanced technology implementations, and other variables, the overall Decentraland metaverse development cost is determined. However, the cost to develop a metaverse app like Decentraland would be anywhere between $40,000 to $300,000.

Q. How long does it take to create a Decentraland metaverse platform?

A. Metaverse app development is a time-consuming process because, unlike other types of application development, it involves more complexities due to its immersive nature. It generally takes about 6 months to create your own metaverse, which can also increase depending on the technicalities. Read to know how long it takes to create a mobile app. 

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director