After a stellar 2021, virtual reality continues to take steps toward becoming a mass-market proposition, boosted by significant improvements in VR hardware, software, and content. 

Meta’s heavy investment has led to VR becoming more accessible and affordable than ever before. Spearheaded by the Quest 2, the explosive growth of standalone VR headset category has been a hugely positive development, which is increasing user engagement, and hence spend on VR content.

At $3.1bn, VR content revenue will represent only 1.7% of the total video game market in 2022. Nevertheless, the rapidly growing addressable base of standalone and tethered VR headsets means that game makers of all sizes are now looking at VR more seriously. 

VR is finally breaking out of the ‘chicken and egg’ situation, where game makers avoided big investments because of the low installed base of devices, while consumers held out for more appealing content.

Gaming accounted for 89% of the total consumer spend on VR content in 2022, and it will remain the primary use case for consumer VR in the near term. 

Looking further ahead, the development of the metaverse will inevitably lead to more spend on gaming, as well as video and other interactive content.

You can find more data on virtual reality's growth by reading Omdia's full report on the year ahead.