Social gaming platform Rec Room raised $145 million in the new funding round. Since its last funding round in March, its valuation has increased from $1.25 billion to $3.5 billion. In its previous financing round, Rec Room had raised $100 million.
With the rise of the Metaverse, the valuations of companies with their virtual worlds skyrocketed. In this market, Rec Room is on its way to becoming a formidable competitor. World themes, where players are creators and creators simultaneously, attract a lot of attention. It is possible to foresee that this theme will rise even more with Rec Room’s investment of close to 250 million dollars this year alone.
Nick Fajt, CEO of Rec Room, said in a statement about the funding round:
“It’s been amazing to watch Rec Room grow from a tiny collection of mini-games into a global platform with millions of experiences built by the community. The platform has become a place where people can come together to form meaningful connections, build communities, and share their creativity. There’s still so much more we want to do, and as we head into 2022, we’re excited to build more experiences, expand to new platforms, invest in best-in-class trust and safety systems, and continue to expand our creator tools.”
The round included investors such as Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, and Coatue Management led the funding round. Matt Mazzeo from Coatue Management said:
“We love the world Rec Room has created for friends to build and play together. From phones to VR, millions of players are hanging out in Rec Room, and we’re excited to partner with the team as they make the digital world more fun and immersive.”
Rec Room was released as a free-to-play game in 2016 and has reached 37 million users in total so far. Initially targeting VR headsets, Rec Room’s growth was slower than expected. For this reason, the organization quickly turned to other platforms, including game consoles, PCs, and mobile devices. When the recent investments made by Rec Room are evaluated, it is seen that this orientation did not go unrewarded.
The number of monthly users of Rec Room has increased by approximately 4.5 times since November 2020. For mobile users, the increase is more than tenfold. Rec Room is free to play; available on mobile devices, game consoles, PC, and VR headsets, including iOS, Android, Xbox, PlayStation, Oculus, and Steam. Rec Room is a vast world with more than 12 million “rooms” and content produced by millions of users.
With the new investments, the competitive power of Rec Room in the metaverse will also increase. Rec Room is rising as a new alternative in the metaverse area where giant platforms such as Roblox are located.
