Virtual World Platforms: A Comparative Analysis of Quality According to ISO 25010 Standards and Maturity Models

Metaverses integrate technologies that push the boundaries of human experience. Their potential to transform areas such as education, mental health, and social-emotional support has sparked growing academic interest. However, despite their expansion, one of the main challenges for their implementation lies in the proliferation of metaverse platforms with diverse characteristics, architectures, and purposes, which complicates the task of informed technology selection. Given this diversity, a systematic approach is required to compare platforms based on functional and non-functional attributes relevant to specific application contexts. The objective of this study was to propose a model for evaluating the quality of metaverse-type platforms based on a hybridization of the aspects defined in the ISO/IEC 25000 family of standards, a maturity model extracted from recent literature, and the Metagon metaverse characterization typology. Using this model, 23 metaverse platforms were evaluated, with statistical analysis including PCA and k-means, achieving a kappa coefficient of 0.7643 between evaluators. The results show that platforms such as Decentraland, Overte, and Roblox achieve the highest levels of maturity (NM5), while JanusXR and Sansar remain in experimental categories. The results provide a taxonomy of characteristics refined and validated by experts that were used in the evaluation of a set of platforms, offering a rigorous and reproducible classification useful for guiding technology adoption decisions in emerging contexts. The discussion presents the basis for future studies focused on the evaluation of specific categories, such as educational, therapeutic, or social interaction platforms.