Study: VR sales flat, but usage up
March 2, 2023
Plume, the personalised communications services pioneer, has revealed insights into the virtual reality device market following a global study conducted from homes powered by its cloud-driven solution. Plume has connected more than 2.2 billion WiFi-enabled devices and currently manages over 45 million locations in the Plume Cloud globally.
This latest update explores the popularity and usage of Wi-Fi-connected VR headsets comparing the behaviour in the same homes across the second half of 2021 and the second half of 2022. When comparing the two time periods, the results show that Plume households that own a VR headset have not added more devices, with a marginal decline of -0.9 per cent in the average number per home. However, over the same period, there has been a major increase in VR headset-related data usage of +83.9 per cent, coupled with a marginal increase in accumulated busy hours per day of +0.9 per cent. This suggests that while users aren’t using their VR headsets for longer periods, they are using more data-rich services and applications.
When it comes to market share, Meta is the dominant player responsible for 99.7 per cent of VR headset deployments in Plume homes. For now, all indicators suggest that the category remains niche, but with richer applications now available, the market may be preparing to go mainstream.
“Our latest Plume IQ study reveals some fascinating insights into the virtual reality headset market,” said David Huynh, Chief Product Officer at Plume. “With data usage increasing markedly, and busy hours increasing only marginally, our indices suggest that more data-rich and bandwidth-hungry applications are arriving into the market. However, we’re not seeing a major increase in the number of devices per household suggesting that the market is flat. Today, it’s a segment dominated by one brand Meta with its Oculus headsets, though we do see other players including Microsoft and Varjo entering.”