IDC forecast the market for AR and VR headsets in Asia Pacific to register a CAGR of 51 per cent over the next five years as new vendors and developers create more hardware and content options.

Shipments of headsets in the region grew 60.8 per cent year-on-year in 2021 to 2.2 million units. IDC predicted continued growth, led by demand for education and training use cases.

“With vendors pushing consumer-specific models and more quality content, consumer shipments should continue to grow in the long term,” market analyst Yexi Liao stated.

Liao explained while “Chinese brands contributed more than 60 per cent” of the Asia-Pacific headsets in 2021, the majority were for the domestic market, though added China-based vendors are expanding shipments in the region and globally.

Vendor DPVR booked 50.8 per cent shipments growth but market share fell from 23.3 per cent in 2020 to 21.8 per cent. Pico shifted 50.4 per cent more units but share fell from 21.3 per cent to 20 per cent.

Meta registered 276.2 per cent shipments growth, taking a 16.5 per cent share; iQiyi units grew 206.4 million and its share nearly doubled to 9.4 per cent; and HTC took a 5.9 per cent share as shipments rose 70 per cent.