Yes, very real, if there was no mining gear there would be no working blockchain now.
But cloud mining, mining apps, all those schemes with 100% to 1000% monthly returns are just scams.With profitability down the drain there is no way to make money right now even with mining companies that were
almost legit, like bitdeer.
So, avoid them like the plague.
Virtual money, numbers in a script that showed you what the owner wanted, as real as gold coins in an RPG game.