Why are The Sandbox’s LANDs so expensive?

With the future of Web3 and the Metaverse gradually becoming a reality, virtual real estate has solidified its place and shaking things up with its skyrocketing popularity in the market. 

The Sandbox virtual lands are a success case that are currently leading the charge to become a mainstream asset in online games. LANDs are built on Sandbox, a decentralized community-driven gaming, NFT and design platform running on the Ethereum blockchain, where owners can create, share and monetize their  NFTs and gaming experiences. Several big companies have already started investing big in its LANDs, with some sales completing for as high as millions of dollars. Among these brands are Adidas, Deadmau5, Ubisoft and American Rapper Snoop Dogg.

Why are the LANDs so expensive? What determines their worth? A few things, actually. To answer these questions, let us go over some basic information about The Sandbox.

How big is The Sandbox world?

There are a total of 166,464 plots of LAND in The Sandbox Metaverse. Of the total LAND supply, 10% (16,704 LANDs) is held by The Sandbox for special events. Another 16% or 25,920 LANDs is set aside for partners, creators and distributed to gamers as rewards. Currently, there are 100,030 LANDs for sale on OpenSea. 

Each plot is a 96 by 96 meters square with a height of 128 meters. Adjacent LANDS can be combined to form ESTATEs which can be 3×3 (9 LANDs), 6×6 (36 LANDs), 12×12 (144 LANDs) and 24×24 (576 LANDs) in size.

It is also worth noting that 1 metre is the equivalent of 32x32x32 voxels in The Sandbox.

Factors affecting the price of The Sandbox LAND 

In the last seven days, 399 LANDs were traded on OpenSea with an average trading volume of 1,258.6 ETH (around US$3.6 million), and each transaction had an average price of 3.1545 ETH (just over US$9,000).

The prices of these digital real estate are determined by similar factors affecting real-life properties, read on to find out more.

Location

Like in real life, there are lands or properties located in “choice spots” that are in higher demand than others. This is usually due to their location and proximity to other key areas.

Meanwhile, in The Sandbox, LANDs situated closer to properties of popular brands are in high demand since the big names attract more traffic thus increasing the value of the entire area. For example, last December, someone paid the equivalent of US$450,000 to purchase a plot of LAND adjacent to Snoop Dogg’s Sandbox ESTATE.

Size

Size is an obvious factor; the bigger the LANDs, the pricier they are. The Sandbox ESTATEs are generally split into four size categories; small (3x3 LAND), medium (6x6 LAND), large (12x12 LAND) and extra-large (24x24 LAND).

Big companies like Ubisoft, Warner Music Group, Binance prefer and own XL ESTATEs while brands like Adidas, Care Bears, and Snoop Dogg own large ESTATEs.

Utility

This is perhaps the most important factor, and it refers to the value of The Sandbox as a whole. Many people believe in the value and utility of The Sandbox; hence the value of its assets increases. The platform’s multiple collaborations with several industry giants also contribute to its high value.

The metaverse as a whole and the concept of virtual real estate are still in their infancy in terms of development, but it is still exciting to see what the future holds. They are off to a strong start and hold infinite potential for growth. Who knows, virtual real estate may become so influential that their values might start to mirror that of real life.

Photo: The Sandbox