How many users does the average Web3 platform have?
If youre curious, youre not the only one.
A recent peak of how many users some Web3 platforms have got even more people wondering.
Image Credit: Steven Leith/flickr
Why Are User Numbers Important?
In social apps, small regular user numbers can feel intimate, like the regulars at a neighborhood diner.
Many Web3 platforms are open worlds.
For investors, on the other hand, user numbers are really important.
This can form a Catch-22: low user numbers mean investors dont invest.
Investors not investing means the platform cant improve.
The platform not improving means that user numbers never go up.
Remember one important thing, however.This is Web3.
Investors arent people wearing top hats and monocles who live at the bank.
Anyone can be an investor in Web3.
How Many Users Does the Average Web3 Platform Have?
It might not be fair to suggest that there is such a thing as an average Web3 platform.
However,Decentralandmight be one of the most ready examples.
But, how many people actually use the platform?
Are those numbers off?
How Many Users Does the Average Web3 Platform Really Have?
With 770 people, Decentraland ranks 8th among social Web3 apps available on Dapp Radar.
As of this writing,DSCVRis ranked 220th and has 0 users.
DSCVR has a different view on the matter.
The companysCEO, Rick Porter, explained the situationto emerging technology analyst Tom Ffiske.
Dapp Radar doesnt actually report users.
According to Porter, the vast majority of DSCVR users dont choose to connect their wallets.
And, even when they do, theyre not necessarily using their wallet regularly on the platform.
What Is a User in Web3?
All of this raises an interesting question.
What is a user in Web3?
Should we measure site use by visitors or some other label?
If you dont connect your wallet to a Web3 platform, are you really using Web3?
That may sound like a weird litmus test question to count people out.
However, some Web3 platforms have users sign in with their wallets as a form of identity verification.
So, how many users do a Web3 platform need to succeed?
How Many Users Does a Web3 Platform Need?
Lets look at Decentraland again.
Weve established that we dont know how many users the site actually has.
The upside of Web2 is that users dont need to pay for a site to make money.
Web3 platforms dont usually have these caps.
In November of 2021,a single investor reportedholding over $350,000 worth of digital land in Decentraland.
From a conventional operating standpoint, these whales can easily subsidize the users who access platforms without paying in.
This is the ideological goal of Web3.
It also explains how a platform can profitably run with small percentages of users paying up.
A World All to Yourself?
As a visitor to a Web3 platform, its usually pretty easy to see how many people are around.
Most Web3 platforms are pretty good about showing you how many people are in a world before you enter.
But it’s possible for you to almost always find a virtual space with a few other occupants.
