Meta Quest Didn’t Save VR Market, But Glasses May Take Over

VR headsets are out, and AR glasses are in. Research from analysis firm Counterpoint shows that the global VR shipments trended down through 2024 despite proliferation cheap headsets like the Meta Quest 3s. Worse, VR sales numbers may not improve any time soon. The next step for these companies are glasses—with or without augmented reality capabilities. Big tech now needs to convince consumers thin glasses filled to the brim with AI are better than shoving a heavy piece of plastic on their noggins.

The number of VR headsets shipped globally fell by 12% year-over-year. Headset shipments fell a whole 5% in the last quarter of 2024. That was despite the grandaddy of the virtual reality hype bubble, Meta, promoting the $300 Meta Quest 3s. That cheap but capable headset gave the Mark Zuckerberg-led company an even greater VR market share than in previous quarters, consuming more slices of a dwindling pie. Sony managed to hold on to its bare 9% market share, likely because of its PlayStation VR2which got a boost from its integration with PCVR late last year, plus the usual holiday discounts.

The luster is coming off the VR headset, and not just the really affordable ones. The Apple Vision Pro was similarly in decline in the last few months of 2024. Counterpoint said shipments of Apple’s first “spatial computer” fell by 43% in the quarter of 2024. The company had a small boost in sales when it took its headset to a few select global markets in the middle of last year, but it didn’t help its market share when it ended the year at just 2%.

The analysis firm contended that the VR market won’t gain much ground in the next two years. That’s mostly due to a lack of content and the common complaint about discomfort from shoving a screen in front of your eyes for hours on end. These complaints aren’t new. They’ve been present for years, even more so back when Meta was all in on promoting the shared VR world called “the metaverse.” Now that we’re several years past the hype cycle, Meta and Zuckerberg have glasses on the mind. The unexpected success of the Meta Ray-Ban has the company raring to go on more wearable products. The company also sees these glasses as a vehicle for getting you used to its cloud-based AI models meant to offer you a personal assistant straight from your face.

Counterpoint claimed the AR glasses market will grow 30% through 2026. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses proved such a big hit that Meta now hopes to release “half a dozen” new AR glasses models in 2025. Zuckerberg told investors earlier this year he thinks the company could sell “billions” of AI-enabled AR glasses to completely corner the market like it did with VR. Apple is further behind on its long-rumored smart spectacles project, though it may have something to show in the next few years, according to the latest rumors.

And still, more big tech players are getting into the VR/AR headset game. Samsung and Google are developing Project Moohan, an AR headset that seems close in capabilities and—if you look at its rumored specs—the high price to the $3,500 Vision Pro.

I’ve used the Ray-Ban Metaand I wasn’t as impressed as others. They’re fine for shooting hands-free photos and video (though without control for focus or zoom makes them less than ideal). As for the much-touted AI connectivity, I have yet to find a use for a chatbot that routinely fails to identify objects around it correctly.

Beyond smart sunglasses, the next step for lighter, feature packed wearable devices is augmented reality visuals like a heads-up display scrolling in front of your eyes. CES 2025 was flooded with these kinds of devices, some of which with integrated AI chatbots and screens with blazing green text. I’ve put on plenty, and all of them still don’t feel like usable products. They lack a solid use case without capabilities that go beyond a typical smartphone.

Perhaps Google, Meta, Apple, or any number of smaller companies may show up in 2025 with something that is both light and powerful. The closest we’ve seen to that promise so far is Meta’s Oriona pair of true AR glasses. And still, the issue with AR-capable wearables is that you need to stick a powerful computer in an incredibly small package. Meta’s pet AR spectacles project requires an additional data puck to function. It’s an issue that reportedly killed Apple’s plans for tethered AR glasses. We may be able to avoid the discomfort of headsets in 2025, but we may instead be tangled in a mess of wires running from our faces to our pockets or have AI chatbots talking to us through our glasses.