New Study Projects XR Revenue to Reach $100.8 Billion by 2026

ARtillery Intelligence publishes its five-year outlook for XR revenues.

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ARtillery Intelligence has released a new report that projects XR revenue to grow from $18.96 billion in 2021 to $100.8 billion in 2026, a 39.7 percent compound annual growth rate. Along that growth trajectory, spending could reach an estimated $41.2 billion this year. Entitled XR Global Revenue Forecast, 2021-2026, the report examines XR revenue totals and subsegments.

Enterprise spending holds a leading share of XR revenues with an estimated $10.45 billion in 2022. This is driven by enterprise AR hardware and software that boosts productivity through line-of-sight guidance. Consumer XR meanwhile follows closely behind at $10.01 billion, driven by gaming-dominant VR hardware and software spending.

Other spending categories tracked in this report include supporting technology for XR experience creation, including developer platforms and other enablement tools. This category collectively drove an estimated $5.8 billion in spending in 2022, growing to almost $10 billion by 2026.

“XR supporting tech will be a key segment, said Mike Boland, Chief Analyst of ARtillery Intelligence. “This represents the picks and shovels that will accelerate XR adoption by elevating its functionality, optimization, and end-user delivery. History tells us that such enabling tech gains value as emerging tech approaches adolescence.”

As for segments with the most projected growth, consumer AR could inflect as it evolves from handheld to headworn. That will take years due to technological and cultural hurdles, but could be accelerated by Apple’s rumored entrance. Apple could launch an entertainment-first VR device in 2023, followed in later years by AR-oriented smart glasses. The latter could inflect the market in the 2026 timeframe and be driven by Apple’s high-stakes motivations.

“Apple has a long track record of mainstreaming emerging tech through its signature halo effect,” said Boland. “We saw this with smartphones and tablets. Now, Apple is highly motivated toward AR, given iPhone maturity and global saturation, along with its wearables division’s ability to offset those declines. Smart glasses would feed right into that.”

Figures reflect market factors at the time of creation. Always see chart date for context, and refer to newer projections if applicable.

Report Availability

XR Global Revenue Forecast, 2021-2026 is available to ARtillery PRO subscribers, and more can be previewed here. This report follows ARtillery Intelligence’s separate examination of mobile AR, headworn AR, and VR spending.

About ARtillery Intelligence

ARtillery Intelligence chronicles the evolution of spatial computing (AR, VR, and the metaverse). Through writings and multimedia, it provides deep and analytical views into the industry’s biggest players, opportunities and strategies. Products include the AR Insider publication and the ARtillery PRO research subscription, which together engender a circular flow of knowledge. Research includes monthly narrative reports, market-sizing forecasts, original consumer survey data, and multimedia – all housed in a robust intelligence vault. Learn more here.