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18 Virtual Reality Statistics and Data – Updated in 2024
Last Updated on
Note: This article’s statistics come from third-party sources and do not represent the opinions of this website.
Virtual reality has slowly increased in popularity over the last decade. Once upon a time, virtual reality headsets were extremely expensive and out of the reach of most users. However, today, they are much cheaper, which means that many more people get to use them.
Many more headsets are being made and more games are being designed.
However, whether or not this trend will hold has yet to be seen. Is virtual reality the next level of gaming or will it remain an interesting concept with a small user basis? Either way, it has shaken up the market over the last few years and will likely continue to do so.
Beyond gaming, healthcare education has anticipated very immersive experiences through the use of VR, as have the education and workforce development sectors.
Most VR content revenue comes from gaming, making $1.2 billion in 2020. Of course, this number is only expected to rise.
Over 25% of all gamers on steam had an Oculus Rift headset as of January 2021. This isn’t counting other headsets, which are also fairly common among steam users.
1. In 2020, 5.5 million virtual and augmented reality headsets were shipped around the world. This is expected to reach 43.5 million by 2025.
(Statista)
The sale of headsets and other virtual reality gear has risen substantially over the past few years. It has more than doubled every year on record and is expected to be a significant market by 2025.
2. Facebook is currently the biggest seller of virtual reality gear, followed by Sony.
(IDC)
Facebook sells most of the VR headsets on the market at 38.7%. Sony is in second place at 21.9%. The affordability of Facebook gear is likely why it is so inexpensive. Plus, the company has committed itself to expanding considerably into VR over the next few years. We don’t think they’re letting go of their lead anytime soon.
3. Content offerings are the main obstacle in the way of adoption.
(Perkins Coie)
When asked why they did not own a VR headset, most would-be users stated that the lack of content was to blame (27%). However, others stated that they did not previously have a good experience or did not think that they would have a good experience. Other reasons included regulation risks (for businesses, mostly) and the overall cost.
4. In 2020, the virtual reality market was worth $12 billion and is growing on average by 54% each year.
(IDC)
Because the market is new, it is growing substantially. We expect that more and more people will purchase VR headsets in the future, and more content will be introduced. In the end, this will only lead to the market growing more, which hints at big profits for businesses.
User Statistics
Image Credit: capondesign, Pixabay
5. In the United States, around 19% of adults have tried VR.
(AR Insider)
This does not mean that all of these people own VR. Instead, the majority of these users likely tried VR at an event or a friend’s house. However, you should notice that this number is quite low. In other words, not many people have even tried VR once.
6. Currently, about 57.4 million people use VR in the United States.
(eMarketer)
That is quite a few people. However, not all of these users actually own their own headsets, though this is becoming more common as headsets become less expensive.
7. Just over half (55%) of VR users extremely or moderately enjoyed the experience.
(AR Insider)
However, that does leave a lot of people that found VR only slightly satisfying or not satisfying at all. If you’ve ever used VR, it is easy to understand why some people would not like it. It can be a bit dissociating.
8. It is projected that 25% of internet users will adopt VR by 2023.
(Artillery Intelligence)
We will likely see more and more users utilizing VR in the future. As headsets become cheaper, more people are able to own them. Eventually, many users on the internet will also use VR headsets.
9. The number of monthly VR users increased by 75.7% from 2018 to 2020.
(Oberlo)
While this is record-fast adoption, things are likely to speed up even more. Eventually, VR headsets will be just as common as purchasing a computer or other gaming device. The more people adopt VR, the more content is created, which leads to more people adopting VR.
How is VR Used?
Image Credit: Lucrezia Carnelos, Unsplash
10. Beyond gaming, healthcare education has anticipated very immersive experiences through the use of VR, as have the education and workforce development sectors.
(Perkins Coie)
While gaming is the number one use of VR, many people have also considered using it in other sectors. For instance, healthcare has anticipated that many immersive experiences will be developed to help train the next line of doctors. Furthermore, workforce education and manufacturing sectors also believe that VR will provide important training opportunities in the future.
11. 91% of businesses are planning to adopt VR or AR technology.
(TechRepublic)
Advertising is the number one way that businesses plan on using these new technologies. However, others planned on creating content or utilizing VR in training.
12. VR training reduces workplace injuries by 43%
(Chaos Theory Games)
VR training is able to greatly reduce workplace injuries in all sectors. For one reason or another, it is much more effective than many other training methods, though it is currently also very expensive.
Image Credit: JESHOOTS.COM, Unsplash
13. VR training has a retention rate of 75%.
(FrontCore)
Compared to lectures (5%), reading (10%), and videos (20%), VR has a much higher retention rate. In other words, employees continue to use it, which is likely also why they receive a lot of benefit from it.
14. Boeing cut training time by 75% after implementing VR training software into their program.
(LightReading)
This is a great way to see how effective training with VR can be. It helps improve retention and lessens the time it takes for employees to learn. Of course, it is likely to be better at helping users learn certain things over others.
15. 53% of organizations use VR for product engineering and design.
(TechRepublic)
Many companies are using VR to help their employees design projects. Complicated projects like machines are the best use for VR, as it allows users to really see how parts fit together. It is better to build it incorrectly on VR than it is to build it incorrectly without VR.
Gaming
16. Most VR content revenue comes from gaming, making $1.2 billion in 2020. Of course, this number is only expected to rise.
(PwC)
While companies also use VR for training and design, most content revenue is in gaming. As more and more headsets are purchased, this amount is only expected to rise. Gaming will likely have the lion’s share of the revenue for some time.
Image By: Laurens Derks, Pixabay
17. Over 25% of all gamers on steam had an Oculus Rift headset as of January 2021. This isn’t counting other headsets, which are also fairly common among steam users.
(Steam)
The Oculus Quest was the next most common headset at 16%, followed by the HTC Vive at 16%. Some users had multiple headsets.
18. In January 2021, there were also 61 VR games on Steam.
(Steam)
Compared to the thousands of games on Steam, that isn’t actually that many. However, many games are VR compatible and not necessarily counted as “VR games”. Despite this, it is easy to see why content is one of the main obstacles to adoption rates. There just aren’t many games!
Frequently Asked Questions about VR Statistics
How Many People Get Sick from VR?
About 40 to 70% get sick after only 15 minutes of playing VR. Typically, if you are going to get sick, you usually get sick quickly. In some cases, 100% of users get sick. It largely depends on the game and application. Some games hardly make anyone sick, while others make everyone sick!
How Many VR Headsets Were Sold for this year?
11.2 million headsets were sold this year. 2021 was the largest year for VR headsets to date, and we expect that they will only continue to grow. 2022 is likely to be even bigger.
What Age Group Uses VR the Most?
The biggest age group using VR is 18-34-year-olds. Nearly 35% of people in this bracket use VR regularly. However, only 6% of those over 55 years of age currently use VR. As you’d expect, the younger generation appears to be the fastest adopter of this new technology.
What Percentage of People Use VR?
Only 19% of people have used VR in 2020. This includes those that only used VR once, though, not regular users. That is not a huge percentage. However, it has likely grown over the last few years as headsets have become more common.
VR is growing quickly in areas with secure internet. VR usage is nearly doubling every year—as headsets have become cheaper, many more people are purchasing them.
However, making content is much more difficult in VR than it is on other devices. Therefore, there is far less content available. The content that is available is not often fleshed out and is not a “complete” game. There are many small experiences, but no virtual worlds for users to explore quite yet.
While the hardware of VR has become increasingly advanced and available, the software has not. Largely, this is what stands in the way of more people purchasing a VR headset, there just isn’t a lot that you can do with one—yet.
Kristin is passionate about helping animal lovers by informing them on the latest scientific research and understandings. She currently resides in Tennessee with four dogs, three cats, two fish, and a lizard, though she has dreams of owning chickens one day!
