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On February 9, 2022, Bunch announced Bunch 2.0, a move from video chat around mobile games toward a shared, avatar-based social hub. The plan was to let friends meet in rooms and community spaces, then move into external games, with blockchain-backed digital items as a possible layer of ownership. It was an announced direction and invite-only rollout—not evidence that Bunch had built a mature, widely adopted metaverse.
Before Bunch 2.0: chat around the game
Bunch began in 2017 as a real-time social layer for multiplayer gaming. Friends could video chat while playing, keeping a group together even as they switched between conversation and games. It was closer to a shared party line than to a standalone virtual world: the game remained the main destination, and Bunch helped people play together.
The pandemic increased demand for remote socializing. CEO Selcuk Atli described substantial growth during lockdowns, from thousands of users to millions of people reached or served. That figure is historical and should not be read as a current active-user count. Bunch’s rationale for expanding was that a social experience might be more durable if people had a place to gather even when they were not playing one particular game. GamesBeat’s 2022 report covers the announcement and Atli’s account.
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What Bunch 2.0 proposed
The new concept shifted the starting point. Instead of opening Bunch mainly to talk while gaming, users would enter a social destination, meet as 3D avatars, and choose what to do next. The announced features included:
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- Personal spaces: users could create houses or rooms for friends to visit.
- Community spaces: larger areas could bring together communities, clans, or people interested in a game.
- Social presence: avatars and spatial interaction would make the environment feel more like a place than a conventional chat room, while video chat remained part of the product.
- A route into other games: friends could form a party in Bunch and jump into an external game, rather than being limited to games hosted inside Bunch.
Bunch said the product worked internally and described an invite-only expansion, with a beta planned for the second quarter of 2022. Those are rollout plans reported at the time, not proof of a broad public launch or sustained operation of every feature. App Developer Magazine’s account also describes the proposed experience.
What Bunch meant by “metaverse”
Bunch used “metaverse” in a practical, non-VR sense: connected digital spaces where people could gather and move from one experience to another. Its pitch combined three ideas: a spatial environment, access to outside games, and a digital-asset economy. This was the company’s positioning, not a universally accepted definition of the metaverse.
The comparisons clarify the ambition, but each captures only part of it:
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- 【Less plug, More Play-Dual Input From 2.4GHz & Bluetooth】 Wireless gaming headset adopts high performance dual mode design. With a 2.4GHz USB dongle, which is super sturdy, lag＜30ms, perfectly made for gamers. Bluetooth mode only work for phone, laptop and switch. And 3.5mm wired mode (Only support music and call).
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- Roblox offered social, spatial play and movement among experiences within its own ecosystem. Bunch argued its hub could instead lead users into games on other platforms.
- Discord enabled persistent communities and coordination around games, but did not center on a shared 3D world. Bunch wanted to combine communication with avatars, rooms, and activities.
- Minecraft, The Sandbox, and Decentraland each offered forms of shared virtual space, but differed in their platform boundaries, game design, and economic models.
Calling Bunch “Roblox meets Discord” is useful shorthand, and versions of that comparison appeared in Bunch’s own positioning. It should not be mistaken for product equivalence. The proposed distinction was a social lobby that could connect people to external games, not a claim that Bunch had achieved universal cross-platform access.
Why add blockchain and NFTs?
Blockchain was new to the Bunch 2.0 proposal, not a feature of the original video-chat product. Bunch presented it as a way for users to own digital goods—especially cosmetic items—and potentially use them in more than one experience. Atli described the idea as “extensible utility”: another application might recognize an item and give it a function.
The important limitation is that ownership does not make an item automatically portable. A game or other application would still need to choose to recognize and support it. Contemporary reporting described NFT cosmetics as a plan; it does not establish that Bunch launched a widely used NFT economy, which blockchain it selected, or that other games adopted its assets. The Jacob Wolf Report discussed the NFT plans and the company’s Web3 pitch.
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- Universal Compatibility: This gaming headphone support for PC, Ps5, Ps4, Xbox one, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Laptop, Mobile Phone and other devices with 3.5mm jack.Note 1: When you use headset on your PC, be sure to connect the "1-to-2 3.5mm audio jack splitter cable" (Red-Mic, Green-audio). (Please note you need an extra Microsoft Adapter when connect with an old version Xbox One controller)
- Cool style gaming experience: Colorful RGB lights create a gorgeous gaming atmosphere, adding excitement to every match. Heightening immersion for FPS, MOBA, and action titles. These eye-catching lights give your setup a gamer-ready look while maintaining focus on performance. (*Note: The USB connector is for LED lighting only)
Why the pivot made sense—and what made it hard
A persistent social destination could address a weakness of a companion app: if friends were not playing a compatible game, there might be little reason to open it. Rooms and community spaces could give people a reason to return, help users find groups, and let Bunch become a discovery or distribution layer for games. Avatars and digital cosmetics also offered possible forms of identity and monetization.
But that ambition expanded the problem Bunch had to solve. A chat product needs reliable communication and a reason for groups to use it; a social world also needs enough people, spaces, activities, moderation, and reasons to stay. It would have faced several practical hurdles:
- Network effects: rooms are most compelling when friends and communities are already there. A new destination must compete with established group chats and game communities.
- External dependencies: launching into another game, linking accounts, and coordinating across mobile, PC, or other platforms depends partly on systems controlled by those games and platforms.
- Audience fit: casual players drawn to easy video chat may not want wallets, NFTs, or a more elaborate avatar world.
- Trust and safety: public or larger spatial rooms bring moderation, harassment, fraud, and child-safety challenges beyond private calls.
- Interoperability: an asset standard or blockchain cannot compel a game to support an item. The usefulness of digital ownership depends on participating applications.
Those trade-offs help explain why a compelling concept is not the same thing as a proven platform. Bunch’s announcement described a product direction; it did not demonstrate that the company had overcome the adoption, integration, and moderation challenges.
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Funding and industry context
Bunch announced a $20 million Series A in September 2020, led by General Catalyst, with participation from game companies including Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Supercell, Miniclip, and Ubisoft. The backing underscored Bunch’s connections to the games industry, but investment is not evidence that a later product achieved adoption. Bunch’s Series A announcement lists the round and investors.
Later reporting discussed additional fundraising plans and figures based on pitch materials. Those reports should be treated as attributed accounts, not as a substitute for a first-party financing announcement or proof of operating success.
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Bunch’s public homepage, reviewed in 2026, describes the product as a party app for social casual games, emphasizing video chat, party games, and hanging out with friends. It does not foreground the 2022 pitch’s avatars, NFTs, blockchain economy, or broad metaverse framing. Bunch’s current site is therefore a useful contrast with the announcement.
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That contrast supports a narrow conclusion: Bunch’s public positioning is now less expansive than its 2022 metaverse pitch. The available sources do not establish precisely when or why the strategy changed, whether every Bunch 2.0 feature was discontinued, or the scale of any adoption. An investor portfolio page labels Bunch “acquired” but does not name the acquirer or give a date, so it cannot resolve that history. Golden Ventures’ profile provides that limited status information.
Bunch 2.0 is best understood as an attempt to move from being the call alongside a game to being the gathering place before and between games. Its defining idea was the combination of spatial social presence and a path into external games; blockchain ownership was an added, conditional bet rather than guaranteed interoperability. The announcement showed a strategic ambition, not proof of a lasting metaverse platform.
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