The Metaverse exists. It's called Youtube, Discord, Twitch, and whatever social games are the current center of the zeitgeist. The Metaverse trend was only ever the trend towards people doing their entertainment and socializing online instead of going to physical locations to do it and that is happening with or without peripherals that fully simulate physical immersion.
It exists since the early days of interconnected computers, the problem for companies like Meta, is trying to make a multi-million business out of them, with the usually worthless KPI of exponential growth year after year.
Another big component of a metaverse (in my mind) is essentially an accessible MMO with creative tools. Spore Galactic Adventures is the oldest example I can think of, but one could argue Fortnite and Minecraft are much closer to that vision.
Chats rooms arent really an interactive space for the output of creative tools like video games are, and I'd argue YouTube and Twitch are "dumb TV portals" if you set their algorithmic sorting and toxic live chat side.
Definitely, game worlds where you build persistent realities is a huge component, it goes beyond fortnite and minecraft to things like Valheim or the latest MMO, but also I think includes the collective experience of less social games like Elden Ring, or whatever the community is centering around. I include Youtube and Twitch because you can see how strong a lot of those communities are and the amount of money that's changing hands there, I think it's an important component. The chat might seem toxic, but there is a very large subculture happening in there and it moves between the in game experiences, youtube clips, chat rooms, and twitch chats. I'd consider them all part of the same ecosystem.
