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For Gen Z and Millennials, Owning a VR Headset Is as Rare Today as It Was in 2018

Reports of VR headset sales dropping begs the question, did young gamers ever buy them to begin with…

Written and Edited by the YPulse Editorial Team

Mar 15 2023
North America

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Virtual reality investments have come into question as Meta’s Reality Lab reports billions in losses
YPulse data shows VR headset ownership has never taken off with young consumers—though metaverse gaming certainly did
With AI all anyone can talk about right now, it may be replacing brands’ VR and even gaming focuses

Many brands were once banking on virtual reality as the core driver towards the metaverse future, but stats (and profit losses) are now showing that products like VR headsets were not the surefire gamer add-on they hoped. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg—driver of the term “metaverse” as he rebranded Facebook to Meta—is being warned to put the metaverse and his push for teens to join Horizon Worlds (their not so successful metaverse platform) to rest. Reality Labs, the division housing metaverse, virtual reality, and augmented reality projects, “reported $13.7 billion in operating losses for Reality Labs for 2022, more than the...