Long Live the Metaverse: Identifying the Potential for Market Disruption and Future Research

The Metaverse represents a transformative frontier, blending physical and virtual realities into immersive, persistent digital environments. This article explores the foundational components, emerging markets, and critical challenges shaping the Metaverse's evolution. Although initial industry enthusiasm has been tempered by financial setbacks and shifting priorities toward generative artificial intelligence (AI), the Metaverse remains nascent, following a familiar hype cycle with other disruptive technologies. Drawing parallels with historical technological breakthroughs, we argue that continued hardware, software, and telecommunications advancements will unlock the Metaverse's potential for profound societal and economic impact. We explore the potential for business approaches and collaborative efforts across various market sectors, including consumer goods and commercial services, as well as healthcare and industrial realms. To do so, we explain how technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) increase user participation through consuming content that creates a sense of presence while at the same time outlining Metaverse challenges, risks, technological difficulties, and sociotechnical factors. By dissecting specific use cases and proposing strategies for managing challenges like data privacy, security, and inclusivity, we chart a path for researchers and practitioners to foster innovation. The article concludes with a call to action for researchers to lead visionary efforts, urging them to anticipate and shape the future possibilities of the Metaverse beyond current technological and market constraints. By breaking down the Metaverse into targeted applications, this work provides a roadmap for advancing theory, design, and practice to unlock the Metaverse's full disruptive potential. We challenge the notion that the Metaverse is "dead," instead framing it as an enduring societal and economic transformation catalyst.