by 
VR traction over the past several years has been slower than many had anticipated. But it’s still finding small wins and is growing at a fairly healthy pace. So the question is how well it’s landing with consumers today, and are those sentiments trending in the right direction?
So we set out for answers. Working closely with Thrive Analytics, ARtillery Intelligence authored questions to be fielded through its established survey engine to more than 50,000 U.S. adults. The result is Wave 9 of the research, and a narrative report we published to unpack the results.
Known as VR Usage & Consumer Attitudes, Wave 9, it follows similar reports over the last few years. Nine waves of research now bring new insights and trend data to light. And all nine waves represent a collective six-digit sum of U.S. adults for robust longitudinal analysis.
Among the topics tackled: How is VR resonating with everyday consumers? How often are they using it? How satisfied are they? What types of experiences do they like most? How much are they willing to pay for it? And for those who aren’t interested in VR… why not?
Early Stages
Starting at the top, what’s VR’s overall penetration? This year’s survey pegs it at 27 percent of U.S. adults – up from 25 percent in Wave 8. It’s still in early stages, and we expect usage to gradually climb as consumer comfort levels – and the technology itself – advance.
To pause for definitions, the above figure measures U.S. adults who have used VR at least once. This broad definition lets us start with a baseline, and then drill down. For example, how do these overall usage figures break down by frequency? We’ll circle back to that question.
Another question is how VR’s penetration represented in these survey results translates to overall market size. Given that this is a U.S.-based survey, applying the above 27 percent figure to the U.S. adult population (330 million) indicates that roughly 89.1 million adults have tried VR.
Again, these 89.1 million users don’t necessarily equate to frequent users (more on that below). It’s also important not to infer from this figure a U.S. installed base of 89.1 million VR headsets. A large portion of usage is with shared hardware, such as households or VR arcades.
As for who these users are, they skew male at 61 percent. Meanwhile, 32 percent are 25-34, while 29 percent are 35-44. This means that 61 percent of VR users are consolidated within the age range of 25-44. As for income levels, usage is evenly distributed across income groups.
Strong Signal
Back to frequency, most VR users engage monthly (32 percent) and daily (26 percent), followed by weekly (25 percent). This means that 83 percent of VR users engage monthly or more. This is a strong signal for VR engagement levels, compared to most other forms of consumer technology.
As for trending, daily use is flat, while weekly use is down two points, and monthly use is up five points. That last part is the headline. Though daily and weekly usage aren’t growing, monthly usage growth shows that VR is settling into a less-frequent but still-steady and consistent pattern.
Why is all this important? Frequency is a key health indicator for consumer tech, especially monthly active users. In VR specifically, adoption barriers can be high (boundary setup, dedicated time for immersive media, etc.). So the name of the game is ease of use and replayability.
We’ll pause there and pick things up in the next installment, including other variables in consumer VR. What headsets are they using? What are the most popular use cases? How satisfied are they with VR? And how much are they willing to pay for it? We’ll tackle all these questions.
Read the full report here.
More from AR Insider…
