XR headset shipments 2016-2025

Worldwide shipments of extended reality (XR) headsets stood at seven million in 2020. The number of shipments is forecast to increase to 105 million by 2025. XR headsets are expected to transform the way users experience media, software applications, and social networking.

XR market

XR is an umbrella term for all immersive technologies including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality, plus those that are yet to be created. VR creates an artificial environment, whereas AR simply makes use of the existing environment by overlaying new information on top of it. In both VR and AR, the information or imagery is typically made available to the user using a headset.

Metaverse

Regarded as the next iteration of the internet, the metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds come together. As an evolution of social technologies, the metaverse allows digital representations of people, known as avatars, to interact with each other in a variety of settings. Already, several companies including Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, and Epic are investing in their versions of the metaverse. Development of the metaverse will require collaboration across companies, creators, and policymakers.