Omdia: Global XR Hardware Shipments Fall 39% in First Half as XR Glasses Growth Fails to Offset Headset Decline
TECHWORLD ·
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Omdia said global XR hardware shipments totaled 1.9 million units in the first half of this year, down 38.7% from a year earlier.
XR glasses expanded their shipment share from 10.2% in the first half of 2025 to 25.8%, but the market remains too small to offset the sharp decline in XR headsets.
Meta's share fell from 71.3% in the first half of 2025 to 48.2% in the first half of 2026, but it remained the overall market leader.
Omdia announced that global XR hardware shipments totaled 1.9 million units in the first half of this year. That was down 38.7% from a year earlier. Omdia said the sharp contraction in XR headsets was behind the decline in first-half XR hardware shipments.
Omdia said XR glasses are growing in popularity. As a result, XR glasses accounted for 25.8% of total shipments in the first half of this year, up from 10.2% in the first half of 2025. This growth was driven by Tethered display glasses.
However, Omdia said the XR glasses market is still small. For that reason, the company added, growth in XR glasses alone cannot offset the steep drop in XR headset shipments. In the Tethered display glasses segment, RayNeo, VITURE, and XREAL together held a 93.1% share.
Omdia said the market has continued to decline for 4 straight years through 2025, following its pandemic-era peak in 2021. The shipment decline in the first half was presented as an extension of that ongoing downtrend.
RayNeo and VITURE ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the overall XR hardware market, supported by demand for their flagship devices. The devices seeing strong demand were the RayNeo Air 4 and the VITURE Beast series. RayNeo took 2nd place in the overall XR hardware market with a 9.9% share, while VITURE placed 3rd with an 8.6% share.
Jue Qiran, a senior analyst at Omdia, said consumers tend to prioritize ease of use and are willing to accept some loss of immersion. He said XR glasses momentum is expanding alongside this trend. He analyzed that lighter designs and familiar use cases such as video viewing and gaming are factors easing barriers to adoption.
By contrast, Meta saw its share fall sharply as demand for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S continued to weaken. Meta's share dropped from 71.3% in the first half of 2025 to 48.2% in the first half of 2026. Even so, Meta remained the market leader despite the decline in share.
George Jijiashvili, Omdia's senior principal analyst, said that although Meta has invested significant resources in the headset segment, it has struggled to replicate the runaway success of Quest 2. He said Quest 3 and 3S offered reasonable pricing and improved specifications, but failed to drive a major upgrade cycle or meaningfully expand the potential customer base. He added that the result is tied to the broader, persistent weakness in the headset market and reaffirms the limits of bulky headwear in expanding sales beyond the core enthusiast base.
In regional XR hardware shipment share, North America maintained its position as the largest market with a 43.9% share in the first half of this year. Western Europe ranked 2nd with a 23.8% share in the first half of this year.
Greater China expanded its share based on high domestic adoption of tethered glasses. Greater China's share of global shipments rose from 11.9% in 2025 to 16.3% in the first half of 2026. Greater China recorded the largest increase in share and overtook the rest of Asia-Pacific to emerge as the No. 3 regional market.
Analyst Jijiashvili said the next stage for XR is not a direction that requires entry into isolated virtual environments, but one in which AI and spatial features are naturally integrated into everyday wearables. He also stressed that a shift from non-routine, occasional use to everyday, habitual, frequent use is needed, and that such a transition is the key to moving beyond today's niche enthusiast market.
Source: TECHWORLD · Lee Gwang-jae
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406637
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Source: TECHWORLD
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