50,000 people tour two cities, Shibuya and Harajuku!
HIKKY ( Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Yasushi Funakoshi) held "Virtual Market 2023 Real in Shibuhara" as the real event of the world's largest VR event "Virtual Market" which has acquired the Guinness World Record™ with over 1 million visitors. The "Virtual Market 2023 Real in Shibuhara" consisted of 5 venues in Shibuya and Harajuku, and it was held on December 16 (Sat.) and 17 (Sun.), 2023.
This year's event was held at a total of five main venues: "Shibuya Sakura Stage" and "SHIBUYA109 Shibuya Store Front Event Space" in Shibuya, and "Himmelbrau Harajuku," "Wharf Harajuku," and "Anon Harajuku" in Harajuku, in a tour of the two Shibuya-Harajuku neighborhoods. In addition to the main venues, numerous stores in Shibuya and Harajuku cooperated with the event, serving as spots for puzzle-solving games, stamp rallies, and off-line meetings. The event was a great success again in the new areas of Shibuya and Harajuku, with a total of 50,000 visitors in the two days of the event.
| 【Topic】 ・About 50,000 visitors came to the event over two days, touring the two cities of Shibuya and Harajuku. ・Metaverse users gathered in the real cities of Shibuya and Harajuku. ・People in Shibuya and Harajuku can easily experience the Metaverse. ・Sold out merchandise and tickets, and distributed more than three times as many as expected. |
Tour the two cities of Shibuya and Harajuku! Events are held at five main venues!
①Shibuya Sakura Stage
Stage events and corporate booths were held at BLOOM GATE, Shibuya's new landmark "Shibuya Sakura Stage".
Stage events included the "UUUM Stage" featuring UUUM creator "Nobaman" and his good friends "Yamien" and "Nephrite," the "Club Cosmetics Stage" featuring beauty-loving professional gamers "Furanshusuko" and "Kyu-chan," the "VIRTUAL Uta Den 2024" featuring voice actors "Kotori Koiwai," The "Kana Pro Stage" featured appearances by voice actors "Kotori Koiwai," "Aozora Tokui," and "Asami Imai" and the announcement of the "VIRTUAL Utaden 2024," and the "JRA Stage" featured popular voice actors "Himika Akaneya," "Hope Yamamoto," "Hitomi Ueda," and "Lynn" as well as horse race-loving comedian "Dangerous Yasuda" who predicted the G1 races. Stage events were also held. Other stage events included a Metaverse Business Talk Show and a stage event welcoming members of the VRChat community, and some of the stages were so popular that the crowd overflowed outside the stage venue.
Some of the stages were also streamed from the Web Metaverse space, which could be accessed with a smartphone or other device via a web browser.
Disney Plus, Suntory, and UUUM also had booths at the event.
At the UUUM booth, "Nobaman," "Koichi," and "Hajimemashite Matsuo" were selling goods by themselves, and the booth was so successful that all of the goods were sold out.
At the Suntory booth, sampling of the beer-tasting beverage "All Free" was so successful that three times the expected amount was distributed on the first day. In addition, popular cosplayer "Moe Iori" appeared dressed as "Adult Vket-san" and handed All Free beverages directly to visitors, which was also a big hit.
The "Wonder Hatch - The Island of Flying Dragons" booth at the Disney Plus "Wonder Hatch - The Island of Flying Dragons" booth, where visitors could try on VR equipment at the VketVR venue, was a great PR opportunity for many visitors to see "Wonder Hatch - The Island of Flying Dragons," which will start airing on December 20, 2011.
In addition, a "Creator Meets" corner was set up on an oversized monitor in the venue, where visitors could see their drawings transformed into 3D and displayed on a Christmas tree in the VR space inside the monitor. Many visitors, including children and people from overseas, enjoyed this experience.
②SHIBUYA109 Shibuya store, event space in front of the store
At the event space in front of the storefront of Shibuya's iconic SHIBUYA109, a booth was set up for "AVATAR MEETS", in which a VR space was projected on a large screen monitor. By putting on a special marker and standing in front of the monitor, you can become an avatar yourself and communicate with other avatars in the VR space. Many people enjoyed this easy-to-use Metaverse experience. In addition, a simplified version of AVATAR MEETS was set up at three other venues this time, and visitors were able to communicate with each other in a metaverse space linked to all the other venues, allowing both real and metaverse visitors to enjoy seamless communication between the real and metaverse.
③Himmelbrau Harajuku
At "Himmelbrau Harajuku," avatars were projected on a monitor at the entrance to welcome visitors. "BELC" and "HIKKY" exhibited their booths at the venue.
At the Belc booth, a "rideable shopping cart," which was imported back to the real world from the VR space, was displayed as a photo spot. The BELC Land lottery, which offered a chance to win original goods, was so popular that all the tickets had been sold out by the end of the first day.
At the HIKKY booth, visitors were able to experience the metaverse space created by HIKKY's metaverse services "My Vket" and "Vket Cloud. In addition, as part of an industry-academy collaboration with the Belle Epoque College of Beauty and Fashion in Harajuku, HMDs decorated by students majoring in nail art were also on display.
Other features included a "Cheki Wall" where visitors could display Cheki in their avatars, a "Welcome Metaverse" where visitors could talk directly with their avatars on a monitor at the entrance of the venue, and a "Message Board" where many visitors left their messages. Many visitors left messages on the "message board".
④Wharf Harajuku
At the Wharf Harajuku venue, the first floor features corporate exhibition booths, sales of official goods, and content by Sony's spatial reproduction display.
The booth of Aurora, a long-established umbrella manufacturer, sold "Virtual Market Collaboration Umbrellas," and a booth where visitors could make their own original goods by printing the official Vket logo and characters on T-shirts, eco-bags, and anywhere else they wanted was very popular.
Sales of official VketReal goods also exceeded expectations, with a total of over 2,000 items sold.
On the B1F, booths by Paraly Real creators were set up, and many users visited the booths on both days to enjoy real interaction with the creators.
⑤Annon Harajuku
Anon Harajuku, with the key visual for this year's VketReal on the exterior, exhibited booths by parareal creators active in both real and VR. The booth was so popular that a waiting line formed before it opened, and it was crowded with visitors on both days.
In addition, NTT East's high-speed optical fiber service "FLET'S Hikari Cross" was used to provide a stable communications environment at this year's venue, allowing each metaverse content to be offered in a stable environment at all times.
"Metaverse-Linked Mystery Solving Game" and "Street Walking Present Campaign" to Tour the Streets of Shibuya and Harajuku
In the mystery-solving game that linked the metaverse with a stroll through the streets of Shibuya and Harajuku, in addition to the five main venues, the outdoor footwear brand KEEN's (https://www.keenfootwear.jp/ ) directly-managed store "KEEN GARAGE HARAJUKU" and the VR and real venues also had booths at the "Aurora Borealis" umbrella manufacturer "Aurora Borealis" and "Aurora Borealis". AURORA Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku, a concept store of umbrella maker Aurora (https://aurora-store.jp/ ), which will have a booth at both VR and real venues, and "I CAN T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT KNIT by gim", a directly-managed store of Harajuku-based knitwear manufacturer gim (https://www.gim.co.jp/ ), will also appear as spots for solving puzzles. Many participants were seen in the streets of Harajuku and Shibuya, wearing the bonus cat ears and solving riddles with their smartphones in hand, doubling the number of participants from the previous year to approximately 2,000. The event was well received by the brand, who said, "We were able to increase sales because people from a different demographic than our usual customers visited our store.
The AR Stamp Rally featured a "Street Walking Present Campaign" in which participants could enter a campaign to win the latest AR glasses, high-end gaming chairs, wireless headsets, and more by scanning the QR codes on posters placed at each venue. By scanning the QR codes at all venues, the chances of winning increased, and many people participated by walking around the streets of Shibuya and Harajuku.
"Vket Walk," a new project that lets you step out into the real world in your virtual form
"Vket Walk" is a new project that allows people to interact with each other in the real world in their avatar form. Real people can walk with the monitor, and you can feel as if you are walking in the real world from inside the monitor, while you are still in your avatar form. Since the video and audio of the real person are also connected, it is possible to communicate with them in real time. This is a very popular event for those who live far away and cannot easily attend events in Tokyo, or for those who would like to enjoy real events in a virtual form! Many people enjoyed the seamless connection between the real and virtual worlds.
500 people attended! "Vket Official Off-line Meeting"
The "Official Off-line Meeting" was held at two rental stores in Shibuya. 500 people participated in the two-day event, which was a great success with many people signing up for advance tickets and collaborating with the community on VRChat.
After the off-line meeting, the "Paralympic Beautification Committee" organized a walk from Shibuya to Harajuku with participants picking up trash. More than 75 people participated in total, "optimizing" the cleanliness of the streets of Shibuya and Harajuku.
HUB x Vket Collaboration Cafe held again this year
The collaboration café with HUB, which was a great success at the previous event in Akihabara, was held again this time! Vket collaboration cafes were held at two locations, HUB Shibuya and HUB Shibuya 3, and original drinks were served. Once again, numerous visitors came to the event, and the store was filled with customers discussing their impressions of this real event while drinking Vket collaboration drinks. Approximately 1,200 Vket collaboration drinks were sold over the two days.
A detailed report of this event is available in HIKKY's official note "Vket Magazine".
Please also read this page.
Virtual Market 2023 Real in Shibuhara Overview
Name | Virtual Market 2023 Real in Shibuhara |
Opening period | December 16 (Saturday) to December 17 (Sunday), 2023 |
Opening Hours | 10:00〜19:00 |
Venue | 1) Himmelblau Harajuku (1-19-19 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) 2) Wharf Harajuku (1-9-1 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) 3) UNKNOWN HARAJUKU (6-5-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) (4) SHIBUYA109 Shibuya store event space (2-29-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) (5) Shibuya Sakura Stage (1-1 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) Collaboration contents will also be held at other stores in the Shibuya and Harajuku areas. |
Entrance fee | Free of charge |
Official website | |
Official X | Official X will be sending out updates on the event. Please follow us. |
About the Virtual Market (also known as Vket)
This year marks the fifth anniversary and eleventh time the event has been held, and is one of the world's largest metaverse events where people can buy and sell 3D items such as avatars and real products such as clothes, PCs, food, and drink at venues in the metaverse. The event has been held since 2018 and is a pioneering event in the Metaverse, boasting over 1.2 million visitors from around the world and holding the Guinness World Record™*. In addition to buying and selling products, the event also offers "experiences" unique to the Metaverse, such as riding rides, receiving customer service, and participating in live music performances at the venue. Visitors can also enjoy voice communication with each other, giving them a realistic feeling as if they were touring the city together in the real world.
Virtual Market started as a place to buy and sell 3D data products between individuals, but in recent years, major companies that want to enter the metaverse business have expanded the sale of real products, creating new possibilities for VR commerce.
*Recognized by Guinness World Records™ as the largest number of booths at a virtual reality market event.
About VR firm HIKKY
-Create a world where the value of creativity is widely recognized-
HIKKY Co., Ltd. is a VR firm that creates an open metaverse where anyone can create and access freely. With notable creators who lead the industry as our members, HIKKY provides VR services such as highly unique Metaverse solutions including Vket Cloud, plan and operate Metaverse events, and provide consulting services that support business entry into the VR/AR field. HIKKY aims to develop the living, economic, and cultural spheres of the virtual world and create a society where all creative people can live more freely and abundantly.
The world’s largest VR event, Virtual Market, hosted by HIKKY has acquired a Guinness World Record™ in 2021. In addition, HIKKY won first place in the marketing category of the “AIXR International VR AWARDS” and the highest award in Japan’s “XR CREATIVE AWARD 2020.”
CEO: Yasushi Funakoshi
Headquarters: 4F, Mitomi Building, 1-20-22 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0013, Japan
Headquarters: 4F, Mitomi Building, 1-20-22 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0013, Japan
Established: May 1, 2018
For inquiries from corporate clients regarding this event, please contact us at
