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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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(Steam)
The Oculus Quest was the next most common headset at 16%, followed by the HTC Vive at 16%. Some users had multiple headsets.
(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!
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.
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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.
Featured Image Credit: JESHOOTS-com, Pixabay
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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!
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