Can you believe that there is a community of people who are actively buying virtual land? Yes, since 2020, you can actually buy a piece of virtual land through Atlas Earth.
A few years back this would be impossible to understand, but with the rise of blockchain and metaverse, buying virtual land doesn’t sound like a crazy concept anymore.
However, the platform I am going to review today doesn’t have much to do with crypto directly. In fact, you can’t even use crypto to buy or cash out from Atlas Earth.
What Is Atlas Earth?
Atlas Earth is a mobile game that allows you to buy virtual land. The app covers the entire earth – Atlas Earth sells plots of land that are 30×30. It’s a location-based app, so this virtual reality app does a good job of mirroring real-world locations.
When you sign up, you get one plot of land for free.
Even though that may not tell you much, the fact is that the entire concept of Atlas Earth doesn’t have a solid foundation.
The game revolves around people using real money to buy virtual land – essentially, parcels that only exist inside this game.
Once they actually purchase a land, they can earn money by renting this land out to other people, who are active participants of the game.
In essence, the game doesn’t provide any ultimate value – it revolves on people buying, selling and renting parts of the game.
Who Created Atlas Earth?
NextNav is the company that created Atlas Earth in 2021. I believe that the big idea around creating this app is to essentially take advantage of the current metaverse hype and people’s willingness to buy into new concepts.
Is Virtual Land a Good Investment?
Essentially, no. Unlike the actual land, virtual land doesn’t provide any value. Even though the game allows you to rent or sell your land, the next person who buys it doesn’t have any value from it.
They can only profit by again renting or reselling it to a third person.
Virtual land world is based on a greater fool theory. You can buy an overpriced item and only turn profit if someone is willing to pay more for it later on.
Why Do People Buy Virtual Lands?
There are many reasons why people decide to buy virtual land:
- Digital real estate is considered an asset – since the beginning of internet, there has been a consistent rise in demand for digital real estate. While buying online businesses like websites and domains can bring you ton of money, digital assets like NFTs and virtual land can’t make money on their own.
- FOMO – A lot of people are dealing with a fear of missing out. This fear has been exacerbated by seeing all of “crypto gurus” that cashed out big time on bitcoin hype.
- Low Entry Barrier – buying virtual land is quick, easy and doesn’t cost too much money (unlike real land). It’s considered low effort, low risk and people are willing to give it a try with a hope that virtual land might become the next big thing.
How Do You Make Money With Atlas Earth?
When you join Atlas Earth, you will see that you can buy Atlas bucks (in-game money). 100 Atlas Bucks will set you back $5. With $5, you can buy one parcel of land in Atlas Earth.
To generate money, you will need to rent this land. By renting land, you are gaining $.04 back per year. That’s about 1% yearly return. Not a lot, and it will take you quite a bit to make your investment back.
Another way to earn money is to sell your parcel to another person.
How Does Atlas Earth Make Money?
While you are getting a 1% yearly return, Atlas Earth is making money hand over fist. Along with money that you had paid to purchase virtual land inside the game, they are also making money through advertising.
While you are in the game, you can earn additional Atlas bucks by watching ads. It may sound tempting to sit around and watch ads to get free plots of land that may materialize once, if the game becomes popular.
However, it will take you around 50 ads to get enough Atlas coins to purchase one parcel of land.
You also can’t watch ads all the time, since there’s a time limit of 20 minutes separating each ad viewing.
Time is money, and as you can see, in the case of Atlas Earth scam, the chips are stacked against you.
How Do I Cash Out?
To cash out from Atlas Earth, you need to reach $5 in earnings. From one plot of land, it would take you more than 50 years to make enough money through rent to get a payout.
This tells you a lot whether you should invest into virtual land in a mobile game.
Is Atlas Earth a Scam?
Atlas earth app is not necessarily a scam. There are a number of users who ended up cashing out their earnings from Atlas Earth (unlike on some other platforms we reviewed…it’s this one).
However, my assumption is that Atlas Earth, or any similar platform where you can buy virtual real estate is not worth the time and effort. Investing money into stocks, or actual land seems like a much smarter idea.
Or if you don’t have that kind of resources, then you can start with some legit side hustles and platforms, like RedBubble.
What Is The Future Of Atlas Earth?
According to Atlas Earth, they have a lot in store for their users. They plan to expand the game by adding:
- Passports & Badges – You will be able to collect badges as well as fill your passport by traveling to other locations. Through use of passports, you will be able to increase your rent costs.
- Jurisdictions – Atlas Earth will allow you to sell different badges in your jurisdiction. You will also be able to hold different statuses within your jurisdiction. For example, you can become Mayor, Governor or President. Based on that, you can get free Atlas bucks any time someone purchases a badge in your jurisdiction.
- Racer Mini Game – To win more Atlas bucks, you will be able to race other users.
Even though all of this sounds tempting and interesting, you should still keep in mind that this is a game. Even if exciting, you are spending money, and not investing money. If you are keen to spend money to play a game, then by all means to do it.
Mobile gaming industry is set to generate 136 billion globally in 2022.
Bottom Line – Interesting Concept… To Avoid
If you are set on making money by purchasing virtual real estate in Atlas Earth, I advise you to avoid it. It’s very likely you are only going to lose money. The game has been around for quite some time, and it has not picked up a major audience.
It’s highly unlikely that it will take a turn for the better for Atlas Earth. While not a scam, your time and effort should be directed towards building a legitimate business or a side hustle.