PUBG MOBILE x BLACKPINK Wins “Best Metaverse Performance”

As the popularity of virtual worlds, like Meta, gains weight, it is only smart that many companies would grab onto this trend to make a name for themselves. These trends include games like PUBG MOBILE, online currencies, and, apparently, music awards, too, but the people giving out these awards tend to make awful decisions sometimes.

Recently, the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards took place on August 28, and while people generally did not appreciate many awards due to personal reasons, one specific award rattled the gaming community more than the music community. The award in question is known as the “Best Metaverse Performance” award, and the winner of this award is currently receiving hate.

The award originally had a total of six nominees, including BLACKPINK The Virtual from PUBG MOBILE, BTS from Minecraft/YouTube, Charli XCX from Roblox, Justin Bieber – An Interactive Virtual Experience from Wave, Rift Tour ft. Ariana Grande from Fortnite and the Twenty One Pilots Concert Experience from Roblox (again).

https://twitter.com/VMAs_Mtv_2022/status/1561016944202985472

If you did not know, this category entails those events that happened on a pure virtual basis, meaning everything that these events had planned existed only on a digital plane. The uniqueness makes this award intriguing, although a little disjointed towards music.

Everything was fine up until the award was announced (thanks, Variety); the winner was BLACKPINK x PUBG MOBILE, something many did not expect as the event was nowhere up to the level of what the Rift Tour ft. Ariana Grande event in Fortnite had achieved.

Taste that pink venom 💗🖤 #BLACKPINK takes home the award for Best Metaverse Performance for "BLACKPINK The Virtual | PUBG" at the #VMAs. @ygofficialblink https://t.co/K3f4GrgiuJ pic.twitter.com/T5XLUT3H8h

— Variety (@Variety) August 28, 2022

Many had dubbed the event as a carbon copy of what Fortnite had already achieved. Not identical, but clearly taking immense inspiration, if you could say it. Very soon, players started to speak out about the integrity of the award itself.

https://twitter.com/HYPEX/status/1564051463596396545

One could argue that the more popular one is always favored in awards as pleasing a larger majority is more important than pleasing a minor one. In this case, it is almost equal. Though the overall integrity of the newly made award has suffered, this award might actually spark a new genre of music videos and events.