NEEDHAM, MA – Global shipments for AR/VR headsets grew 10% in 2024, according to new data from IDC. The launch of new products during the holiday quarter, as well as multiple new entrants, helped the market return to growth after two years of declines.
Despite newer hardware expected in 2025, however, the research firm forecasts a 12% decline this year as supply indicators point to delayed launches for some key players.
A rebound is expected in 2026 with 87% growth, and volume is expected to 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 39%.
Meta continued to dominate in 2024, capturing 74.6% share throughout the year, followed by Apple at 5.2%, Sony with 4.3%, ByteDance at 4.1%, and XREAL at 3.3%. 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) by offering more premium solutions. Meta’s push into the education segment resulted in a 69% growth in the category in 2024. 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,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager, IDC. “In 2025, we anticipate even more glasses with displays and multi-modal artificial intelligence along with the introduction of Android XR hardware, which is likely to lead to platform rivalries among the key players: Meta, Apple, Google, and everyone else.”
As the AR/VR market grows, so will the opportunity for both 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 T. 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 customers. This gives the market choices around the types of experiences they want to have and how much they want to spend.”
