IMVU is an avatar-based chat and socializing game app and social network. It lets you create an avatar of yourself that you can use to communicate with other people from all over the world.
It comes both as a mobile game app and desktop client app that lets you socialize in a virtual space.
IMVU is one of the first of its kind, and it gets more than 7 million people per month.
You can go to parties, talk with friends, and even make real money by putting together virtual items.
IMVU is not alone in the virtual world space. We have researched and found 10 similar games like IMVU which we list and describe below.
Second Life
The Second Life world is another avatar-like game that you can install on your computer.
It markets itself as exactly what its title says, namely a second, virtual world that you can live in.
There are thousands of communities you can join here, and after you make your avatar, you can do virtually anything within this new, second world.
It can even be used for real business meetings if you like. You can have real meetings from clubs or businesses to make it easier to meet.
Or, you can use it purely for escape, to live a different life, or just to meet people in safe places. Second Life has even been used for therapy.
Zepeto
This app is primarily for mobile, unlike Second Life. There are millions of items you can use to customize your avatar here, going from hairstyles to makeup, clothing, and more. It’s one of the most customizable avatar apps around for that reason.
There’s a huge expanse of world to explore, including just about anything you’d find in the real world like virtual classrooms, parties, and a lot more.
You have a considerable variation on what you can do with friends, including getting a photoshoot with them in-world or play one of the games many mini-games. Meet people in real-time and send a DM to them to stay in touch.
Avakin Life
Avakin Life has been described as an MMORPG, but it’s better described as an avatar-like social network game.
It will play mostly on mobile. You can even play it through Facebook depending on the version.
It’s free to play, and it has a virtual world for you to explore. There are animations in-game that you can activate to have your avatar character show different emotions.
You can buy virtual items at shops, and you can even go on dates. It’s also possible to meet and interact with other people from different countries.
It’s even possible to invite people to a house party where their avatars can come over to your virtual house.
VR Chat
The first thing that comes to mind for the avatar social game VR Chat Plus is that it has a lot of variety and is based on virtual reality.
You can have an animated style or something more realistic. You can look like a space cowboy or just yourself.
Each community makes its world, and there are over 25,000 of them. You don’t need a virtual reality system to play, but you can use a VR device if you have one.
You can play it in places like Steam, Quest, Rift, or Viveport. If you do have a VR system, you can experience what it’s like to explore a new reality with your visual equipment.
However, even if you don’t have VR, you can create entirely new worlds and invite friends to come play in it with you.
This is also another game that people with social anxiety have used to improve their lives.
Lady Popular: Fashion Arena
Another mobile game, Lady Popular is a fashion game aimed just for girls. You can live the fantasy by dressing your avatar exactly the way you want.
For your avatar, you can choose skin tone, eye shape, hairstyle, shoes, accessories, and many more. You can design the apartment you’ve always dreamed about with the best furniture. You can throw parties and weddings however you want to make them perfect.
One of the things that stands out about this game is that it has a huge amount of locations and features.
For example, it has a mall area to get new outfits, you have your wardrobe, you can even go to a Beauty Salon in-game.
There’s a Fashion Arena for showing off fashion skills, there are many contests for winning awards, events, engagement parties, as well as chat rooms for meeting other girls and talking about fashion.
The Sims
The Sims is easily one of the greatest avatar games of all time. Instead of just making a representation of yourself, you design virtual people and introduce them to one of many different worlds of your choice.
There are both PC and mobile versions of these games. There are also console games such as the Feed Your Soul (and your Chickens!) game for Sims4 that’s available on PS4 and Xbox One.
For those who want to play for free on mobile, there’s the Sims FreePlay game. The Sim people you design will go through life in much the same way you do. They can get pregnant, make friends, make enemies, and more.
Style Savvy: Fashion Forward
This particular avatar game is specifically for the portable platform 3DS, which helps everything look three-dimensional.
There’s even a free demo on the site if you want to try it out, and you can download a virtual version of it. You can choose from five different careers, and customize everything from there.
If you want to live life as a top model, you can do that. Other careers include being a hairstylist, a make-up artist, open a boutique, or even just design your clothing from scratch.
There are more than 19,000 options for getting the exact combination you want.
A one of a kind option you get here is that you can get clothing themed by Nintendo characters like Zelda or Samus since it’s a Nintendo game. You can use your 3DS system to go online and play in fashion contests as well.
Smeet
Smeet is a game for either Mac Os or Windows. It’s easy to get set up with it quickly, so you can go right into this free 3D social chat game.
It worked originally through your browser, but these days you have to use a desktop client.
You can create virtual worlds here, just like in other games, but one extra thing for Smeet is that it integrates with other games.
So, while you are meeting and socializing people, you can also bond over mini-games within the world.
Another thing that’s unique to Smeet is that it will split up players based on how old they are so that the people you play with will be closer to you in age.
You also get extras like gardens and pets after you design your online avatar option.
Twinity
Twinity is a 3D chat game with avatars. It has the advantage of allowing you to get started very quickly by creating an account right after you choose an avatar.
There are a limited number of avatars to choose from in the beginning, but it’s worth it for people who want to get started as fast as possible. You can customize it even more after you’ve made it initially.
People who play this game are given the title “Twinizens.” It has representations of real cities within the world.
For this reason, it’s called a mirror world. It’s like a virtual reflection of our world which makes it relatively unique.
There’s a feature here called “Photofit” which allows you to upload a picture of yourself to get an avatar that looks like you.
WoozWorld
WoozWorld has more of a cartoonish look to it and is aimed at audiences that are a bit younger.
It works on mobile or through a browser. New clothing options are updated weekly, so if being up to date in fashion is your thing, this is the app for you.
You can meet and talk to millions of other people, so if you want a huge scope of potential people to speak with, this is a good fit.
On top of the usual avatar customization, there are games you can play to become more famous.
There are millions of rooms to explore as well, and you can customize them however you want to make proms or dances.
Famous people go to this world at live events including bands that are famous in real life, like deadmau5, Simple Plan, and many others. It’s a game that is huge in scale and full of possibilities.
