No company in the world is currently investing as much money in virtual reality as Meta. Mark Zuckerberg continues to doggedly pursue his vision of revolutionizing the world of work and the entertainment industry with the Metaverse. Last year alone, more than $25 billion dollars flowed into Meta's research and development department.
The Californian company's investments are also reflected in the market dominance of its Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset. With more than ten million units sold, it is the best-selling of the current generation, as data from Statista Company Insights shows. Meta has generated an estimated $5.2 billion dollars with the hardware - the market share is an impressive 75 percent.
The closest competitor in terms of sales is Sony's PlayStation VR, of which 6.6 million headsets have been sold worldwide. However, the VR goggles are only intended for console gaming and, in contrast to the Oculus Quest, can be used less flexibly. That is certainly one of the reasons why Sony's headset only has a market share of five percent. Whether the Japanese company can follow up on the Meta sales figures with the PlayStation VR 2 released in February remains to be seen for the time being.
Another big player launching a competing product this year is Apple. The headset, which will probably go by the name Reality Pro, is expected to be mixed reality glasses, unlike its counterparts from Sony and Meta. This means that Apple's Reality Pro is thought to offer a mix between virtual and augmented reality. The new headset is Apple's first venture into a new product category since the Apple Watch in 2015. However, the price of about $3,000 indicates that the Reality Pro is not aimed at the average consumer for the time being.
