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According to the latest research by market analyst firm Omdia (via GI.biz), spending on VR headsets will surpass $1.1 billion in 2020. Notably, there will be a rough total of 6.4 million VR headsets sold in 2020.
The research by Omdia continues on to suggest that VR content revenues will hit $4 billion in 2025, of which 90% will be from games. In 2025, the combined hardware and software value of VR will be worth nearly $10 billion, growing from $3.2 billion in 2020.
A big reason for the growth in 2020? Covid-19. Specifically, lockdowns due to Covid-19 have spurred an increase in VR hardware sales. However, the growth was also limited by Covid-19. There were a lot of "manufacturing challenges in the first half of 2020" that resulted in fewer units being produced to meet the high demand. Then when November came around, the launch of next-gen consoles also led to "diverting gamers' attention and budget."
Despite VR hardware now being a billion dollar industry, only 1.2% of the households across 32 countries analyzed by Omdia will have VR by the end of the year. In 2025 that is expected to grow to just 3% despite being worth $10 billion at that point.
George Jijiashvili, senior analyst at Omdia, commented: "Facebook's aggressive loss-leader strategy has meant that other headset manufacturers simply can't compete, leading to many shifting their focus to the adjacent enterprise VR category. We nevertheless expect more successful consumer standalone VR headsets to emerge over the coming years, particularly from China."
Other devices, such as Valve's Index, have been perpetually sold out throughout the year. The Index specifically has been backordered by a number of months since the release of Half-Life: Alyx earlier this year. Just keep in mind that you do not need to purchase a $1,000 VR kit to get into VR gaming nor do you need it to play Half-Life: Alyx.
