Omdia: Global XR headwear shipments fall 39% in 1H26 as XR glasses growth fails to offset headset decline

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global shipments of XR headwear declined 38.7% year-on-year to 1.9 million units in the first half of 2026, according to the latest data from Omdia. While XR glasses are gaining traction, their growth from a small base was insufficient to counter a steep drop in XR headset shipments. By 2025, the market had recorded its fourth consecutive year of decline following the pandemic-induced peak in 2021.

“XR glasses are gaining momentum because consumers are increasingly willing to trade some immersion for less friction,” said Qiran Ju, Senior Analyst at Omdia.

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In 1H26, XR glasses expanded their share of total shipments to 25.8% – up from 10.2% in 1H25. Tethered display glasses drove almost all of this growth, with RayNeo, VITURE, and XREAL collectively capturing 93.1% of the tethered display glasses segment. Strong demand for devices such as the RayNeo Air 4 and VITURE Beast series propelled RayNeo and VITURE into second and third place, respectively, in the overall XR headwear market, with shares of 9.9% and 8.6%.

“XR glasses are gaining momentum because consumers are increasingly willing to trade some immersion for less friction,” said Qiran Ju, Senior Analyst at Omdia. “Lighter designs and familiar use cases such as video viewing and gaming are lowering the barriers to adoption.”

Meta, meanwhile, retained the overall market lead despite its share dropping sharply from 71.3% in 1H25 to 48.2% in 1H26, as demand for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S continued to weaken.

“Meta poured massive resources into headsets, but has struggled to replicate the breakout success of the Quest 2,” said George Jijiashvili, Senior Principal Analyst at Omdia. “Despite the Quest 3 and 3S offering better specs at accessible prices, they have failed to drive a major upgrade cycle or meaningfully expand the audience. The ongoing slump across the headset market reinforces that bulky headwear remains a tough sell beyond a core enthusiast base.”

From a regional perspective, North America remained the largest XR headwear market with a 43.9% shipment share in 1H26, followed by Western Europe at 23.8%. Greater China recorded the largest increase in global shipment share, going from 11.9% in 2025 to 16.3% in 1H26, surpassing Rest of Asia-Pacific as the third-largest regional market, supported by strong domestic uptake of tethered glasses.

“The next phase of XR evolution will be less about requiring people to enter isolated virtual environments, and more about embedding AI and spatial capabilities naturally into everyday wear,” noted Jijiashvili. “Moving away from occasional, closed-off sessions to frequent, light-touch interactions will be the key to breaking out of the current enthusiast niche.”

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