Decentraland News: Creator Count Is the Foundation’s Weakest Number

Over the 18 months to July 2026, 128 creators published 492 new wearables and emotes on Decentraland, the clothes and moves players buy for their avatars. ^[7] Half of those items made $9.55 or less in total sales, and only 17.5% sold enough to cover the $100 it cost to publish them, a DAO proposal found. ^[7] On the 22nd of October 2026, the Decentraland Foundation’s report for July to September 2026 said its main goal is more creators making a living on Decentraland. ^[1] The number it was least satisfied with was its wearables and emotes team’s count of creators who earn more than $50 a week. The report gave no figure for that count, and blamed it mainly on the suspension of its credits program. ^[1] The report lists two answers: a $5 fee to publish an item for its first six months, and a fund that would pay creators for the players they bring in and keep. ^[1][7] Between the 21st and the 22nd of October 2026, the day the report came out, MANA fell 7.4%, from $0.08867 to $0.08207. The wider gaming market fell 8.0% over the same days.

No submission fee can be anchored to median revenue, because the median item does not earn enough to support a meaningful fee. ^[7]

Decentraland DAO proposal to cut the publishing fee, the 14th of July 2026

1. 1. 1 October 2026. Decentraland Blocks 1,512 NFTs Stolen in the Magic Eden Exploit
2. 2. 5 October 2026. Decentraland DAO Votes to Reclaim $1.7M Committee Funds
3. 3. 6 October 2026. Wearable publishing fee cut to $5
4. 4. 22 October 2026. Foundation posts its Q3 report

MANA: daily closes and the levels it turned at: data table

Date	MANA	Floor	Ceiling
2026-09-23	0.0827	0.0808	0.0910
2026-09-24	0.0882	0.0820	0.0915
2026-09-25	0.0919	0.0831	0.0919
2026-09-26	0.0902	0.0842	0.0938
2026-09-27	0.0911	0.0854	0.0956
2026-09-28	0.0890	0.0865	0.0975
2026-09-29	0.0892	0.0877	0.0994
2026-09-30	0.0888	0.0888	0.1012
2026-10-01	0.0895	0.0884	0.1031
2026-10-02	0.0967	0.0880	0.1049
2026-10-03	0.1068	0.0876	0.1068
2026-10-04	0.1027	0.0871	0.1068
2026-10-05	0.1052	0.0867	0.1068
2026-10-06	0.1023	0.0863	0.1068
2026-10-07	0.1040	0.0859	0.1068
2026-10-08	0.0938	0.0855	0.1068
2026-10-09	0.0936	0.0851	0.1068
2026-10-10	0.0954	0.0846	0.1068
2026-10-11	0.0963	0.0842	0.1068
2026-10-12	0.0944	0.0838	0.1068
2026-10-13	0.0942	0.0834	0.1068
2026-10-14	0.0895	0.0830	0.1068
2026-10-15	0.0897	0.0825	0.1068
2026-10-16	0.0880	0.0821	0.1068
2026-10-17	0.0889	0.0817	0.1068
2026-10-18	0.0813	0.0813	0.1068
2026-10-19	0.0821	0.0813	0.1068
2026-10-20	0.0886	0.0813	0.1068
2026-10-21	0.0887	0.0813	0.1068
2026-10-22	0.0821	0.0813	0.1068

What we have published before

• We covered “Decentraland DAO Votes to Reclaim $1.7M Committee Funds” on the 5th of October 2026 ^[2].
• We covered “Decentraland Blocks 1,512 NFTs Stolen in the Magic Eden Exploit” on the 1st of October 2026 ^[3].

What the token actually does

MANA is used to buy LAND, the plots of Decentraland’s map, as well as NAMEs and other items on the platform. ^[11] People who hold MANA, LAND or NAMEs can vote in the Decentraland DAO, on proposals such as policy changes and how the Marketplace works. ^[12] The DAO takes a 2.5% fee on first sales in Decentraland’s Marketplace. ^[13]

Performance and holder count

Performance

In the three months to the 22nd of October 2026, MANA rose 22.7%. The wider gaming market fell 9.7% over the same three months.

• On the 22nd of October 2026, it ranked 82nd of the 323 gaming tokens that fell.
• It trades 99% below its all-time high, set in November 2021. The wider gaming market sits 95% below its own.

MANA and Gaming Token Index – Composite, day by day: data table

Date	MANA	Gaming Token Index – Composite
2026-07-23	100.0	100.0
2026-07-24	101.5	101.0
2026-07-25	102.1	102.8
2026-07-26	101.7	104.5
2026-07-27	99.6	98.3
2026-07-28	100.3	101.0
2026-07-29	99.1	101.6
2026-07-30	101.0	102.6
2026-07-31	99.6	105.2
2026-08-01	98.6	106.7
2026-08-02	99.4	99.2
2026-08-03	99.6	96.8
2026-08-04	99.9	92.5
2026-08-05	100.2	94.1
2026-08-06	98.5	92.1
2026-08-07	98.7	93.4
2026-08-08	100.4	99.9
2026-08-09	99.8	108.1
2026-08-10	100.4	89.6
2026-08-11	98.2	84.8
2026-08-12	97.3	85.6
2026-08-13	95.4	83.0
2026-08-14	95.3	80.5
2026-08-15	96.3	77.8
2026-08-16	94.9	77.8
2026-08-17	94.9	76.9
2026-08-18	94.7	75.7
2026-08-19	99.1	77.9
2026-08-20	105.0	81.5
2026-08-21	112.9	87.3
2026-08-22	112.7	87.2
2026-08-23	114.7	87.2
2026-08-24	111.5	86.3
2026-08-25	108.9	84.7
2026-08-26	108.8	84.6
2026-08-27	112.8	86.6
2026-08-28	110.4	85.5
2026-08-29	110.0	85.8
2026-08-30	111.8	85.6
2026-08-31	107.1	84.4
2026-09-01	109.0	84.1
2026-09-02	110.0	84.1
2026-09-03	112.9	87.2
2026-09-04	109.3	85.2
2026-09-05	112.2	87.0
2026-09-06	112.7	87.0
2026-09-07	113.5	88.2
2026-09-08	113.5	88.1
2026-09-09	111.5	87.0
2026-09-10	107.6	83.7
2026-09-11	107.3	84.4
2026-09-12	109.9	85.2
2026-09-13	113.9	86.4
2026-09-14	112.2	86.8
2026-09-15	107.2	83.1
2026-09-16	107.6	82.5
2026-09-17	110.7	85.5
2026-09-18	117.9	90.1
2026-09-19	124.2	91.8
2026-09-20	123.9	91.1
2026-09-21	127.3	96.7
2026-09-22	129.7	98.3
2026-09-23	123.7	95.9
2026-09-24	131.9	98.2
2026-09-25	137.4	101.1
2026-09-26	134.9	101.7
2026-09-27	136.2	103.0
2026-09-28	133.1	98.3
2026-09-29	133.4	99.8
2026-09-30	132.8	96.2
2026-10-01	133.8	97.9
2026-10-02	144.6	103.0
2026-10-03	159.7	106.6
2026-10-04	153.6	109.3
2026-10-05	157.3	109.3
2026-10-06	152.9	106.9
2026-10-07	155.5	103.9
2026-10-08	140.2	100.5
2026-10-09	140.0	102.5
2026-10-10	142.6	104.5
2026-10-11	144.0	104.7
2026-10-12	141.1	101.9
2026-10-13	140.8	99.8
2026-10-14	133.8	95.8
2026-10-15	134.1	95.8
2026-10-16	131.5	94.5
2026-10-17	133.0	94.2
2026-10-18	121.5	89.4
2026-10-19	122.7	91.6
2026-10-20	132.5	94.3
2026-10-21	132.6	98.2
2026-10-22	122.7	90.3

MANA against Gaming Token Index – Composite: data table

Window	MANA	Gaming Token Index – Composite
1 year	-64.67%	-67.59%
6 months	-10.80%	-21.90%
3 months	+22.70%	-9.69%
1 month	-5.40%	-8.09%

MANA against the biggest movers in its group: data table

Token	Return
MANA	-7.4%
VERSE	-79.4%
REVO	-53.5%
OWB	-25.1%
PIRATE	-23.5%
GST-BSC	-20.9%

Holder count

• Holders rose by 14 to 337,914 over the day to the 22nd of October 2026, a change of less than 0.1%. From the 1st of September to the 22nd of October 2026, the span the chart below covers, they went from 339,510 to 337,914, down 0.5%.

Decentraland: holders from the 1st of September to the 22nd of October 2026: data table

Date	Decentraland
2026-09-01	339,510
2026-09-02	339,528
2026-09-04	339,549
2026-09-05	339,563
2026-09-06	339,582
2026-09-07	339,586
2026-09-08	339,588
2026-09-09	339,578
2026-09-10	339,578
2026-09-11	339,591
2026-09-12	339,586
2026-09-13	339,613
2026-09-14	339,616
2026-09-15	339,617
2026-09-17	339,768
2026-09-18	339,817
2026-09-19	339,841
2026-09-20	339,868
2026-09-23	339,854
2026-09-25	338,664
2026-09-26	338,552
2026-09-27	338,539
2026-09-28	338,538
2026-10-02	338,110
2026-10-03	337,943
2026-10-06	337,878
2026-10-10	337,839
2026-10-11	337,834
2026-10-17	337,849
2026-10-18	337,855
2026-10-21	337,900
2026-10-22	337,914

More on the story

The fee cut came from that DAO proposal, which passed. It set the fee at $25 an item, and the Foundation pays $20 of it for the first six months. ^[7][8] After that, creators pay the full $25 unless the DAO votes to change it. ^[7] Even at $25, the proposal counted only 39% of items in its sample that would have earned the fee back. At what creators pay for now, more than half would have. ^[7] Decentraland announced the cut on X on the 6th of October 2026. ^[5]

To mark the cut, Decentraland ran a Halloween wearable contest with a 30,000 MANA prize pool. ^[5] Entries were due by the 23rd of October 2026 at 12:00 UTC. ^[17]

The fund is the Foundation’s other answer. It would pay creators for players who come back, real time spent playing and new players brought in, and platform data would decide who qualifies, under published rules. ^[1] In September, the Foundation worked on detecting bots, so it can tell with some degree of certainty which players are real people. ^[1] Its October plan was to build the fund and run a trial week with no payouts. ^[1] There is no information yet on how much the fund would pay.

The report did not name the credits program it blamed, or say when or why it stopped. ^[1] Decentraland has run a program called Marketplace Credits, which gave players weekly rewards for logging in and going to events. ^[9] Each Credit was worth 1 MANA to spend in the Marketplace, but could not be traded or cashed out. ^[9] Creators could also use Credits to pay publishing fees. ^[10] Its fourth season, announced on the 12th of January 2026, ran until the 1st of March 2026. ^[10] There is no information on a later season.

The Foundation wants 10 studio games where more than 20% of new players come back within a week. It had about 2 in June and 3 by mid-August. ^[1] The number of scenes where more than 15% of new players come back within a week did not improve much either, despite many improvements to the Creator Hub, Decentraland’s building tool, the report said. ^[1] On the 3rd of September 2026, the Foundation relaunched “Get Paid to Make Games”, under a new contract where developers keep their game’s IP, the rights to it. Three new studios joined, the report said. ^[1] A day later, Decentraland’s blog described Creator Success, a program that funds games in stages, starting with up to $4,100. ^[16]

A larger share of new players came back. The share who returned the next day went from 10.4% at the start of the quarter to 13.3% by mid-August, by the Foundation’s own definition. ^[1] Among new desktop players, the share who came back within their first week rose from 17% to roughly 23% to 26%, short of a 28% target. ^[1] The Foundation said several of these numbers come from small groups of people, and in September it changed how it counts players to leave out test sessions and bots. ^[1] It also cut its Amazon Web Services bill by about 24% a month, and shipped 29 versions and patches of the desktop app in the quarter. ^[1]

Esteban posted the report. He took over as the Foundation’s acting head in May 2026, after Yemel Jardi stepped down and stayed on as an advisor. ^[4][9]

The Foundation planned the last quarter of 2026 with Regenesis Labs, a team funded from the Decentraland DAO’s treasury. ^[1][15] In September, the two agreed on one goal for the next one to two years: creators making a living in Decentraland. ^[14] In June, the DAO moved 20,000,000 MANA into a separate wallet for a trading plan. The plan is run with Avantgarde, an outside firm. ^[8] Regenesis Labs said that in September, trades called covered calls turned 5,000,000 of that MANA into 344,698.14 USDC. USDC is a token tied to the US dollar, so that works out to $0.0689 per MANA. ^[14] In a covered call, a holder sells someone the right to buy its tokens at a set price.

Two dates come next. Decentraland’s blog said the contest winners would be named on the 27th of October 2026. ^[6] The Foundation said it would announce the creator fund by the end of October. ^[1]

References

1. ↑ “Decentraland Foundation 2026-Q3 Report” (Decentraland Foundation on the Decentraland forum, the 22nd of October 2026) Source
2. ↑ “Decentraland DAO Votes to Reclaim $1.7M Committee Funds” (our own coverage, the 5th of October 2026) Source
3. ↑ “Decentraland Blocks 1,512 NFTs Stolen in the Magic Eden Exploit” (our own coverage, the 1st of October 2026) Source
4. ↑ “Stepping Down as Executive Director” (Yemel on the Decentraland forum, the 12th of May 2026) Source
5. ↑ “The Wearable publication fee has officially been reduced to $5, this is not a drill!…” (Decentraland on X, the 6th of October 2026) Source
6. ↑ “Halloweeks 2026: One Night of Halloween Was Never Going to Be Enough” (Decentraland blog, the 5th of October 2026) Source
7. ↑ “[DAO:ad37b53] Reduce Wearables & Emotes Fee to $25: Automate Validation, and Reform Committee” (Decentraland forum, the 14th of July 2026) Source
8. ↑ “August Status Update” (DCL Regenesis Labs on the Decentraland forum, the 15th of October 2026) Source
9. ↑ “Marketplace Credits: Earn Weekly Rewards to Power Up Your Look” (Decentraland blog, the 12th of May 2025) Source
10. ↑ “Marketplace Credits Season 4: Jump In and Earn” (Decentraland blog, the 12th of January 2026) Source
11. ↑ (Decentraland documentation, Decentraland 101) Source
12. ↑ (Decentraland documentation, About Decentraland) Source
13. ↑ (Decentraland documentation, The DAO Fund) Source
14. ↑ “September Status Update” (DCL Regenesis Labs on the Decentraland forum, the 15th of October 2026) Source
15. ↑ (DCL Regenesis Labs on the Decentraland forum, the 27th of August 2025) Source
16. ↑ “How to Make Money in Virtual Worlds” (Decentraland blog, the 4th of September 2026) Source
17. ↑ “Publish your Wearable and submit by Fri, Oct 23 at 12pm UTC…” (Decentraland on X, the 6th of October 2026) Source

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