VRChat finally adds monetization options for UGC. Here’s what two top content creators think.

VRChat finally officially launched monetization just before the Thanksgiving holiday last week, so most metaverseers in the U.S. will have missed out on this long-awaited and much-considered feature. (It was released last May.) Here are the basic points:

Paid subscriptions allow everyone on VRChat to directly support their favorite creators while significantly reducing friction. At the same time, paid subscriptions allow creators to create even more interesting creations with their patrons in mind. Creators can now easily create VIP rooms on their instances that are accessible only to subscribers. Or you could have a special car or jet that can only be used if you are a sponsor. Or, if you are a supporter, you may see a special icon above your head. Or, if you’re an event attendee, you can get priority or exclusive access to the event!

How does paid subscription work?

All VRChat players can now purchase VRChat Credits with real money. You can use this benefit for specific benefits set up by the creator through the group. Typically, if you go to the creator’s group page and click the ‘Store’ button, you’ll see a list of items available for purchase. These individual benefits are called paid subscriptions! You can purchase for a specific period of time, such as one month, three months, or one year. Currently not repeating, but will be in the future!

Payment processing of note to NWN readers is provided by Tilia, a Linden Lab spinoff company. So, Second Life and VRChat now share the same payment backend.

What’s even more notable is that VRChat creators only keep 50% of the paid subscription revenue, with 30% going to the platform (Steam, etc.) and VRChat’s actual company taking only 20%.

As I wrote before, there are well over 1000 VRChat creators already monetizing on other third-party platforms (YouTube, Patreon, etc.), so the question is whether they will add this official payment channel as well.

So we asked a few of them! Here are some thoughts from two top VRChat creators who fall roughly into the Good or Meh category.

Reimajo (GOOD), creator of VRChat’s amazing roller coaster simulations:

great. My experience with the creator economy is better than I expected. And keep in mind that the experience so far has only been from a small number of players in the open beta (which also has a very limited feature set at the moment), so the actual release can only be better.

I’ve always struggled to properly integrate Patreon into our world, and it’s been unclear what’s acceptable in terms of monetization. So in our world we just had a Patreon board showing all our sponsors. When I added this Patreon board to the rest of the VRChat world, I only gained two Patreon subscribers, one of whom was a good friend of mine. Now I’ve added the Creator Economy to our world and already got 25 sales during the first week of open beta running. This is probably close to the number of daily active users in the world.

There seem to be quite a few people in this world who play, enjoy, and make it their home every day, so they seem willing to support its continued development as long as they can receive compensation and make payments. VRChat itself. So I’ve found that there are quite a few people willing to pay for stupid features that make them stand out if they can be purchased quickly in-game. But just being on the Patreon board isn’t enough to motivate most people to open an external website and create another account there to throw dollars in your direction.

Lazkuza, co-creator of many VRChat experiences (MEH) like this one:

It’s nice, but it’s not entirely new to the VRC community. People have been supporting creators through sites like Patreon, Ko-Fi, etc. So having a more direct method built into the game would be useful for users who don’t use the site. You can open the in-game menu and subscribe, making it less difficult to support your favorite people. For creators, world integration will become easier and will improve over time as VRChat adds more and more features.

This is not a replacement for Patreon or outside sources, and people who already use that site will choose to use that site exclusively because it provides higher shares for creators. In comparison, creators earn less by doing it through VRChat, but this is a limitation of the platform as Steam/Oculus takes a 30% cut. But it can also bring in new supporters who might not otherwise be able to use sites like Patreon because of where they live or their preferences.

And it’s ultimately up to the community to decide what’s good or bad for their wallet. Support people who respect you as customers. VRChat is not a new concept as people have been making money through it for years.

Regarding the 30% platform cut, Reimajo makes a good point about the VAT tax that EU citizens typically have to pay:

"Even when comparing to Patreon, it’s important to note that Patreon adds VAT to sales (e.g. 20%). VAT is already included when purchasing VRChats currency on Steam, so this should be taken into consideration before comparing the two options. So on Patreon with an 8% stake, you only get 72%, not the 92% that most people assume customers will get from what they pay. So it’s closer to 72% on Patreon and 50% on VRChat. As we already said, it makes more sense to sell even a smaller share on VRChat because we have a much larger audience on VRChat."

So for VRChat creators, I think this generally depends on how much revenue they already make through Patreon and whether they are based in the EU or not. I’m really curious to see how many VRChat players get an official VRC subscription to support their favorite creators.