Estimated annual decrease of 18.2% in VR/AR device shipments in 2023

TrendForce consulting research shows that in 2023, the global shipment volume of VR and AR devices totaled 7.45 million units, a decrease of 18.2% annually.

VR has experienced the most decline, with a shipment volume of approximately 6.67 million units, mainly due to lower than expected sales of new high-end devices. In the future, brands will also shift their sales focus back to low-priced products. AR performance remained flat, with shipments of approximately 780000 units. Apple's new products can temporarily support some demand, but due to the high unit price of the products, it is still unable to effectively promote the growth of the AR market.

Individually, there are two main reasons for the decline in VR device shipments this year. Firstly, brands are overly optimistic about the sales of high-end products. Upgrading hardware and software specifications does indeed have more features, but consumers are not willing to pay high prices for purchases. On the contrary, they will turn to low-priced entry-level products with sufficient functions to meet basic needs. This consumption model will also force brand factories to shift their sales focus back to low-priced models this year. The second reason is that there have been no new low-priced models launched to attract consumers. Due to the expected delay in the launch of Meta Quest 3 until 2024, Meta Quest 2 remains the main product in the VR market this year.

During the period of 2020-2021, AR devices benefited from long-distance communication demand, resulting in a significant increase in shipment volume. However, the growth rate has started to slow down after the exit of the epidemic dividend. At present, it is expected that Apple will launch new products as scheduled in 2023. However, due to the focus on developers, the specifications, functions, and prices of the new products will increase simultaneously, and production will also be more difficult. Therefore, this year should still be mainly pre-sale, with an estimated shipment volume of less than 100000 units, and the overall production may only reach 300000 units. The contribution to the AR market is limited, and it is necessary to wait for more consumer AR products to be launched before the AR device market size can expand.

TrendForce Consulting believes that the development process of the VR and AR device market is limited from 2023 to 2025. Low priced and entry-level VR products can attract general consumers to purchase, but profits are relatively limited, thereby reducing the brand's willingness to invest in the VR market in recent years, or shifting its research and development focus and time to AR devices and related applications. After its launch, it is still necessary to wait for the widespread application of the consumer market. It is expected that the VR and AR market will see significant growth in 2025, The annual growth rate of shipment volume has the opportunity to reach nearly 40%.