Counterpoint: Global VR headset shipments to drop 12% year-on-year in 2024

According to the latest report from Counterpoint, global virtual reality (VR) headset shipments will drop 12% year-on-year in 2024, marking the third consecutive year of decline in the market. In the fourth quarter of 2024, shipments fell 5% year-on-year. Hardware limitations, a lack of attractive VR content and usage scenarios, and declining consumer engagement continue to have an impact on the market. Although demand in the enterprise market is relatively limited in scale, it is stronger, especially in large-scale immersive entertainment (LBE), education, medical and military fields.

Meta continues to dominate the global VR headset market in 2024, accounting for 77% of the market. Meta's market share rose to 84% in the fourth quarter of 2024, mainly due to the launch of the more affordable Quest 3S headset. Sony's PSVR2's shipment share surged to 9% in the fourth quarter of 2024, mainly due to aggressive promotions and discounts during Black Friday and Christmas sales. Apple's Vision Pro shipments fell sharply by 43% month-on-month in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting a slowdown in the early stage of the market. In the fourth quarter, Apple expanded the sales of Vision Pro to new markets, which offset the overall decline to some extent. Enterprise sales of the device also increased.

Chinese OEMs Pico and DPVR also benefited from growing enterprise market demand in 2024. For Pico, shipments in the enterprise market exceeded those in the consumer market, while DPVR saw shipments increase by more than 30% year-on-year in 2024 thanks to its strong focus on enterprise customers.

According to Counterpoint's forecast, the growth of the global VR market will remain limited in the next two years. Despite the potential of spatial computing, there are still major challenges, including a lack of attractive content beyond entertainment, eye fatigue caused by long-term use, and the continuous trade-offs between performance, head display weight, battery life and heat dissipation. Before more significant technological advances are achieved, the growth of the global VR market may face challenges.

The global augmented reality (AR) smart glasses market also faces challenges in 2024, with a year-on-year decline of 8%. Birdbath-based video viewing AR smart glasses remain the dominant category, with a year-on-year growth of 27% in 2024. In contrast, information display glasses based on waveguide technology fell sharply by 67% year-on-year, mainly due to weak sales of INMO products.

We expect the global AR smartglasses market to rebound in 2025 and achieve year-on-year growth of more than 30% by 2026, driven by the potential entry of major technology giants and the accelerated development of the "AR+AI" trend.