Global shipments for AR/VR headsets grew 10% in 2024 according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker.
The launch of new products during the holiday quarter as well as multiple new entrants throughout the year helped the market return to growth after two years of declines.
Meta continued to dominate, capturing 74,6% share throughout the year followed by Apple at 5,2%, Sony with 4,3%, ByteDance capturing 4,1% and XREAL rounding out the top five with 3,3% share.
However, among the top five only Meta and XREAL recorded year-over-year growth thanks to newer products and gaming focused use-cases. Both companies also managed to drive up average selling prices (ASP) for their respective brands by offering more premium solutions.
Throughout 2024, the launch of new headsets from Apple along with well received headsets such as the Quest 3 (and later 3S) as well as the Pico 4 led to an increase in commercial demand.
Developers were eager to create mixed reality experiences with devices from Meta and Apple while those looking to scale deployments opted for Pico’s products in addition to Quest.
Adding fuel to the fire was Meta’s push into the education segment which led the category to grow 69,4% in 2024 versus the prior year.
In total, commercial shipments were up 14,9%.
“Last year was a great year for hardware as we got to see new mixed reality headsets from large brands such as Apple and Meta, and it was also a great year for smaller brands such as Even Realities and RayNeo each of which focused on slimming down the form factor and providing consumer friendly designs for glasses with displays, rivaling popular smart glasses such as Meta’s Ray-Bans but with added display tech,” says Jitesh Ubrani, research manager: Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers at IDC.
“In 2025, we anticipate even more glasses with displays and multi-modal artificial intelligence along and the introduction of Android XR hardware which is likely to lead to platform rivalries among the key players: Meta, Apple, Google, and everyone else.”
Despite newer hardware expected in 2025, IDC forecasts an annual decline of 12% as supply indicators point to delayed launches for some key players though a rebound is expected in 2026 with 87% growth and volume will surpass the peak of 11,2-million units recorded during the pandemic in 2021. Between 2025 and 2029, IDC anticipates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38,6%.
As the ARVR market grows, so will the opportunity for consumer and commercial usage.
“Historically, virtual reality (VR) has been the domain of consumers thanks to gaming and multimedia consumption while augmented reality (AR) has primarily centered on commercial users to expedite workflows,” points out Ramon Llamas, research director with IDC’s XR Hardware and Interactive 3D Software team.
“The rise of mixed reality (MR) stands to cater to both user groups with both immersive virtual experiences and the ability to see digital content on a projected view of a user’s environment.
“Meanwhile, extended reality (ER) has already caught on with consumers for gaming and multimedia consumption, but it isn’t hard to envision how businesses can leverage this technology for their users and their customers. This gives the market choices around the types of experiences they want to have and how much they want to spend.”