Augmented reality market size worldwide 2017-2025

The worldwide market size for augmented reality is forecast to increase drastically in the next few years. Over the period from 2017 to 2025, the augmented reality market size is estimated to increase by over 195 billion U.S. dollars, increasing from roughly 3.5 billion in 2017 to over 198 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.

Augmented reality vs virtual reality

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that blends digital components with the physical environment in such a way that they enhance each other but are easily told apart. AR makes use of sensory devices to modify a user’s environment to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it. One example of AR technology is the popular mobile game Pokémon Go. Virtual reality (VR) technology, on the other hand, creates a computer-generated simulation or recreation of a physical environment. VR immerses the user by making them feel like they are experiencing the simulation firsthand through the stimulation of their vision and/or hearing. Examples of VR technology include Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s PlayStation Virtual Reality.

AR use becoming more popular?

Consumer downloads of mobile augmented reality applications have been increasing worldwide since 2016. Total consumer downloads of augmented reality applications worldwide in 2022 are predicted at over 5.5 billion, a drastic increase from the 2016 downloads which were slightly over a billion.