---
title: "Persistent world — REG-003, The Register"
canonical: https://metaversegroup.com/encyclopedia/persistent-world/
site: metaversegroup.com
owns: "The definition of persistence in virtual worlds"
updated: 2026-08-28
kind: reference
---

# Persistent world — REG-003, The Register

A persistent world is one that continues to exist and change while you are not in it. Persistence is the first precondition for commerce inside a world: without it there is nothing for a business to occupy, no property to own, and no reason for anyone to return.

A persistent world is one that continues to exist and change while you are not in it. Persistence is the first precondition for commerce inside a world: without it there is nothing for a business to occupy, no property to own, and no reason for anyone to return.

## What persistence actually guarantees

Persistence is a claim about state, not about permanence. A persistent world holds what you built until the operator stops running it — which is why persistence in a publisher world and persistence in an open world are different promises. In the first, persistence lasts as long as the company; in the second, the record of ownership outlives the world itself, though the place you owned may not.

## The test

Log out for a month and return. If the world has moved on without you — other people traded, an event happened, your build is still standing — it is persistent. If it reset to a lobby, it is a session with a save file.

CoinGecko Research — metaverse land prices

## See also

Related entries in the Register. Every see-also is reciprocal — if this entry points there, that entry points back.

Metaverse Group, The Register , REG-003 Persistent world, as at 2026-08-28. https://metaversegroup.com/encyclopedia/persistent-world/

Reference numbers are permanent and never reused. This entry is corrected by publishing a new entry that supersedes it, never by editing this text — so a citation made today resolves to exactly what it said today.

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