Virtual goods are already a $118B economy. Branded fashion alone is closing on $8B.

SNS Insider pegs the global virtual goods market at $118.46B in 2025, growing at an 18.4% CAGR through 2035. A separate industry analysis put the virtual fashion ecosystem alone at roughly $7.9B in 2026, with nearly 152 million daily active users across the major virtual environments. These are not metaverse hand-wave numbers. They are receipts.

Roblox and Fortnite proved that consumers spend on virtual identity at scale. Nike's Nikeland and the broader branded-skin economy on those platforms proved that brands can convert that spend into both direct revenue and physical-world brand affinity. The next platform to open up at that scale is the GTA universe, with Cfx.re infrastructure underneath it.

Why GTA is structurally different from Roblox and Fortnite

Roblox's audience skews young. Fortnite's catalog skews stylized and IP-collab. The GTA universe is the rare mass-market virtual environment whose default aesthetic is grounded, contemporary consumer life — cars, clothing, sneakers, sunglasses, watches, jerseys, beverages, electronics. The catalog ceiling is the catalog of real consumer goods.

That is why this market is interesting for categories that have struggled to find footing in other virtual economies: streetwear, luxury accessories, automotive, sports apparel, spirits, audio gear. The native aesthetic of GTA is the native aesthetic of those products.

The two-way flywheel

What gets understated in most virtual goods coverage: digital presence drives physical-world sales as much as the reverse. A player who customizes their character in a $180 jacket for a 200-hour playthrough is forming the same kind of brand attachment a great retail experience creates. Discovery inside the game becomes consideration on the brand's site.

IRL Meshworks is built around that flywheel. Real-world brand awareness drives virtual sales. Virtual discovery drives IRL sales. Same catalog, same brand, two surfaces.