Land has always been a valuable commodity. Even dating back to the biblical days and beyond, the value of, and desire to own, land has been clear. Aside from many obvious benefits of owning a piece of dirt is the fact that nobody’s making any more of it. That’s why a piece of land that was only a few hundred bucks a hundred years ago could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today.
However, in the virtual world, anything can be done, and an entirely new world has been created, known as decentraland, and consumers are latching on.
Digital Land Was the Most Popular NFT Over the Past Week
Over the past year, NFTs have become an overwhelmingly popular commodity, and more recently, when you talked about the most popular collections, Bored Apes Yacth Club, Mutant Apes Yacht Club, Bored Apes Kennel Club, and CryptoPunks were among the most likely to be the center of conversation. However, it may surprise you to find that, by sales, the most popular NFTs over the past week have been NFTs that represent parcels of land in Decentraland, the virtual new world mentioned above.
Decentraland is indeed a virtual world, complete with different terrains and qualities of land. Moreover, the virtual world itself has been divided into 90,601 individual parcels, each of which is represented by an NFT, and according to sales data, these parcels are in incredibly high demand. The Sandbox is a similar platform that has also received quite a bit of attention.
Data from various sources shows that there have been more than $300 million in NFT sales over the past week, with about a quarter of that total being spent on digital land in The Sandbox metaverse. Moreover, during this period, each of the top 10 NFT sales across the top five collections centered around in-game digital land.
During this period, investors spent $70.5 million on The Sandbox to purchase 4,433 parcels of land.
Decentraland ranked in second place in terms of the total volume traded. The top 10 parcels of land sold in the virtual world ranged from $225,000 and $758,250 each. All told, investors spent $6.6 million on 399 parcels in Decentraland in the past week.
Other popular virtual worlds, like CryptoVoxels, Somnium Space, and Superworld also saw strang demand, with $650,000 and $492,000, and $227,600 traded in these virtual worlds respectively.
Why Is Digital Land So Valuable?
At face value, the concept of digital land is pretty simple to understand. Think of Decentraland, Somnium Space, and other virtual worlds as video games. However, unlike the classic video game, when you purchase land, construct buildings, buy cars and other assets within the game, you actually own them.
That ownership is verifiable through the blockchain, creating a digital trail of ownership that makes the digital asset something of real value. Nobody else can claim ownership of your land, nor do anything on it that you’re not privy to.
Moreover, these digital worlds come with a similar key point of value to real land. They’re limited. As mentioned above, there’s no more earth being created. The land that exists now is what will be here forever, meaning that land itself is of finite supply.
Land in these digital worlds is the same. For example, in Decentraland, the world has been split into 90,601 parcels. Once these parcels are all owned, there will be none left in the platform to buy, giving them a finite supply.
There are also benefits well beyond gaming. In particular, from a corporate standpoint, ownership of this land can be a big money maker.
Think about it, Universal Music, Walt Disney, McDonalds, and a wide range of other big brands have announced that they’re entering the Web3 community, many of them launching their own NFT collections. Others have been purchasing land in various virtual worlds, and plan on using that land to provide incentives for those that purchase their branded products in the real world.
All told, virtual worlds are a key piece of the metaverse, one that will help bridge the gap between real-life value and digital assets.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is simple. Digital land is an in-demand asset for good reason. These parcels of limited supply have the potential to create real-world value for corporations, investors, and enthusiasts of all kinds.
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