Omdia: Sales of VR devices will decline until 2026
VR is struggling to be the next big thing, but years are passing and it's not there yet.
Sales of VR devices in 2023 decreased by 24%—from 10.1 million devices in 2022 to 7.7 million.
Omdia expects a further decline in 2024 by 13% and another equal percentage drop in 2025.
The market is projected to return to growth only in 2026 and approach 2022 levels by 2028.
Omdia estimates that the active user base of VR device owners at the end of 2023 is 23.6 million people.
Spending on VR content in 2023 declined from $934 million in 2022 to $844 million. It is expected that this market segment will return to growth in 2024, with content sales reaching $2.3 billion annually by 2028. The primary focus is on VR/AR devices from Apple.
Reasons for the decline include inflation, a reduction in the real income of the population, and subpar performance of three devices: Meta Quest 3 (high price), Sony PlayStation VR 2 (limited content), and Pico 4 (ByteDance is downsizing the VR division).
Additionally, Omdia analysts believe that portable systems are affecting VR device sales. Therefore, the release of Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam Deck OLED will negatively impact VR device sales.