by 
VR traction over the past several years has been slower than many had anticipated. And the sector has experienced some declines over the past few years, which can be seen in Meta’s earnings. Fortunately for Meta, those declines are offset by smart glasses (another topic).
But questions remain around how well VR is landing with consumers today, and if those sentiments trending in the right direction. So we set out for answers. Working closely with Thrive Analytics, ARtillery Intelligence helped field a consumer survey and report on the results.
Known as VR Usage & Consumer Attitudes, Wave 10, the report follows similar research over the last decade. Ten waves of research bring new insights and trend data to light. And all ten 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 33 percent of U.S. adults – up from 27 percent in Wave 9. This six point jump is attributed to a recent surge in location-based VR, as shown in the survey itself, and in milestones from players like SandboxVR.
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 33 percent figure to the U.S. adult population (337 million) indicates that roughly 111 million adults have tried VR.
Again, these 111 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 111 million VR headsets. A large portion of usage is with shared hardware, such as households and, again, LBVR facilities.
As for who these users are, they skew male at 57 percent. Meanwhile, 28 percent are 35-44, while 26 percent are 25-34. This means that 54 percent of VR users are consolidated within the age range of 25-44. As for income levels, usage is fairly even across income groups.
Reality Check
Back to frequency, most VR users engage monthly (31 percent) and daily (23 percent), followed by weekly (13 percent). This means 67 percent of VR users engage monthly or more, while 34 percent do so semi-annually or less – a good sign in that frequent use outweighs infrequent use.
But it’s not all good news… higher-frequency usage is down in all categories. Monthly use is down 1 percentage point, daily usage is down 3 points, and weekly usage is down a whopping 12 points. That last part is the headline and is a concerning reality check for VR proponents.
As for why weekly usage dropped so dramatically, one reason could align with a factor noted above: the growth of location-based VR (LBVR). This is simply because socially-driven LBVR outings are typically experienced with lesser frequency than owned and at-home VR experiences.
As background, LBVR is the highest-growth subsegment in VR. It’s comprised of VR arcades and out-of-home social experiences. Its growth is validated in our separate XR market sizing, as well as the live market activity we’re tracking. We’ll cover this topic in greater depth later in the report.
Read the full report here.