Minecraft
Under-rated on persistence and population, structurally capped on monetisation. The fragmentation that weakens it commercially is also what makes it durable.
Scored against the six conditions
Each score has written reasoning, so a disagreement can be with one number rather than with the assessment.
Persistence
Self-hosted servers persist indefinitely and outside anyone's control but the host's — the strongest persistence story of any UGC platform.
Enforceable scarcity
None at platform level. A server operator controls their own world absolutely, which is authority rather than property — it is not transferable and it is not enforceable against the host.
Footfall
A vast and durable population, though fragmented across independent servers rather than concentrated.
A unit that leaves
No native payout rail. Server economies exist but monetisation is constrained by the publisher's commercial rules.
Standing that travels
No portable identity. Reputation is per-server and per-community, and it does not survive the server going down.
Labour that never sleeps
Server-side automation is possible; no governed agent model.
Studio assessment, dated 2026-08-28. Rubric and method: the Atlas. Price data where referenced: CoinGecko Research.
Position disclosed: Metaverse Group holds no position in Minecraft.
Scoring a world we hold without saying so would be the most damaging thing this studio could publish. The disclosure is generated from one source and appears wherever the world does.
Where it sits
| World | Score | Family |
|---|---|---|
| Decentraland | 13/18 | Open world |
| Somnium Space | 13/18 | Open world |
| The Sandbox | 13/18 | Open world |
| Otherside | 10/18 | Open world |
| Roblox | 9/18 | UGC platform |
| Bitmap | 8/18 | Bitcoin-native |
| Fortnite Creative | 8/18 | UGC platform |
| Minecraft | 8/18 | UGC platform |
| VRChat | 8/18 | UGC platform |
| Apple Vision Pro | 7/18 | Spatial surface |
| Horizon Worlds | 4/18 | Publisher world |
The full league table and rubric: the Atlas.