Newzoo recently released a new report forecasting the future of the virtual reality market for both hardware and games. The report predicts that the VR market will hit around $1.8 billion in 2022, with 27.7 million headsets in use. The analysis also predicts that VR games revenue could rise to $3.2 billion by 2024, with as many as 46 million active headsets in use.
Newzoo’s report also highlights that gaming is still the top use case for virtual reality. Attending virtual events or traveling is further down the list. Analysts reported that 73% of the headset users surveyed listed one of their top hobbies as playing video games.
For games, the most popular genres appear to be adventure games, shooters, and sim titles. Titles like Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, No Man’s Sky, Boneworks, and Microsoft Flight Simulator provide a cross-section of the platform’s most popular titles.
Newzoo’s report attributes VR’s current rise and its predictions to a few factors:
- First, VR rode the same pandemic-induced boom as the rest of gaming.
- Second, Meta’s release of the affordable Quest headsets offered consumers a cost-effective means of playing VR games. Those headsets also work without any other hardware, such as a costly, powerful PC.
- Third, Newzoo credits a VR “killer app” for moving hardware units. Specifically, it names Half-Life: Alyx, which it says leverages the power of a major triple-A franchise.
In 2023, PlayStation plans to launch its PS VR2 headset for PS5 users, alongside several new exclusive games. Meta also recently launched the Quest Pro headset. Either of those could get more gamers into VR, though Newzoo also notes the rise of companies like Pico.
