An initial interpretation of DappRadar numbers on Oct. 11 reported extremely low engagement numbers for Decentraland, one of Web3’s most-hyped metaverses. The numbers shocked the community, as the platform has a current market evaluation of $1.2 billion.

Shortly after the initial report broke, both DappRadar and Decentraland verified that the published number of less than 40 unique active wallets (UAW) was not an accurate representation of activity on the network. According to DappRadar's tracker at the time of writing, UAW is just over 600.

A DappRadar report following the incident revealed that blockchain games and metaverse projects raised a cumulative $1.3 billion in the third fiscal quarter.

However if user engagement is low, what keeps investors coming back for more metaverse?

Cointelegraph spoke with Decentraland, DappRadar and prominent metaverse investor Animoca Brands, to better understand what it is about the metaverse that keeps investors coming back.

Robert Hoogendoorn, the head of content at DappRadar, highlighted that despite the plummet in both crypto token prices and trading volume in U.S. dollars (USD) for metaverse land, the actual number of trades only dropped by 11%.

“This shows there's still strong demand,” he says. Hoogendoorn also reiterated that participation in the metaverse goes far beyond just logging in. It is also decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) activity and development teams leveraging each other's open source software.

Sam Hamilton, the creative director of the Decentraland Foundation, said it is obvious that the space is still young. He continued to say that it “might be shocking” but numbers aren’t stopping anyone from joining in this creative climate.

Hamilton understands