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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?
Market Signals
After the last installment of this series examined VR’s most popular devices, we now switch gears to look at how much time is spent in VR. What’s the average amount of time that users will engage? This is a key metric in any media that competes for time and mindshare.
Measured as a function of weekly hours in VR, this adds dimension to the frequency ratings (e.g., VR sessions per month) examined in previous installments of this series. The intention is to layer in a sense of engagement through the metric of average time spent in VR in a week.
On that measure, the greatest grouping (48 percent) reports that they strap on a headset for 3-6 hours per week. That’s followed by 30 percent who report less than one hour of usage. 17 percent report 1-3 hours; 11 percent report more than ten hours; and 7 percent report 6-10 hours.
These figures aren’t surprising, but represent good and bad news for VR proponents. The good news is that a dominant share of VR users are engaged with the technology 3-5 hours per week. Though this seems small, relative to media like television and social media, it’s a good sign.
Inherent Challenge
To expand on that last part, VR is a medium that is typically enjoyed in shorter bursts of highly immersive experiences, as opposed to longer binge sessions. This is the nature of the medium, so you could say that VR is inherently challenged to compete with less immersive formats.
More discouraging news for VR follows as we go further down the list. For example, a meaningful segment – 30 percent – engages for less than an hour per week. Given that this is almost a third of the full sample, this represents the VR industry’s biggest area of improvement.
Greater levels of engagement will be required to reach meaningful levels of game and app sales, not to mention retaining VR users to purchase future generations of hardware. In other words, some portion of those lighter users could be in danger of churning as VR headset owners.
One answer for the VR industry could be less sensory-intensive content and more casual fare, a la Job Simulator and Gorilla Tag. This is a historical trend in other media (e.g., mobile) that shifted to casual gaming to appeal to a broader population segment. We’ll see if VR follows that trend.
We’ll pause there and pick things up in the next installment. Meanwhile, check out the full report for more.
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