It’s been 6 years since the famous photo of Mark Zuckerberg entering the conference room full of people wearing Oculus at Mobile World Congress and the VR market is still blocked in the “Innovators” category. Like always, crossing the chasm is the real challenge.
Looking at the gaming market ($ 182 bn – without China) – the VR revenues expected for 2024 will barely move the needle: $ 3,2 bn (expected).
However, the ecosystem is developing at a faster face, as can be seen below.
Here are the top preferred cases for VR headsets (in this order):
1/ Gaming (72%)
2/ Watching video/films (63%)
3/ Attending virtual events/performances (54%)
Most games preferred are Adventure (60%), Shooters (60%) and Simulation (43%). As a result, we see that game engines start to support VR app development more and more. Unity and Unreal Engine remain the most popular platforms for VR app development.
Still more to be done to reach a higher-fidelity VR experience: from headsets to controllers to peripherals.
Monetisation is split in two:
1/ Initial Acquisition: Pay-to-Play or Free-to-Play
2/ Recurring monetisation: In-game purchases, content passes and subscription
Further use cases will start to be seen in Retail, Education, Automotive, Tourism and Healthcare.
source: Newzoo