XR headwear shipments are set to fall in 2026 as punters drift away from bulky headsets towards lighter glasses.
According to the latest forecast from Omdia, global shipments of XR headwear will drop by 12 per cent to 6.2 million units in 2026,
The market is expected to return to growth in 2027, reaching 6.5 million units, up 4.8 per cent. Omdia reckons XR glasses will do the work, offsetting weaker headset sales as users and manufacturers tire of strapping bricks to their faces.
The tethered XR glasses segment, led by Chinese vendors including RayNeo and Xreal, is forecast to hit 900,000 units in 2026. That would be a 19 per cent rise.
Omdia expects the segment to keep growing at double-digit rates and reach 3.8 million units by 2030.
Standalone XR glasses remain a titchy slice of the market, mostly limited to enterprise and developer use. Shipments are forecast to reach just 93,000 units in 2026.
The category is expected to grow quickly over the next five years as hardware improves and spatial computing becomes less of a demo-room fantasy.
XR headwear sits inside Omdia’s wider intelligent headwear market, which includes AI glasses.
Omdia senior principal analyst George Jijiashvili said: “Following three years of rapid growth, AI glasses have begun normalising face-worn computing for daily use. This growing consumer familiarity is directly fuelling the XR glasses segment, laying groundwork for an industry-wide evolution toward slimmer glasses form factors.”
The standalone XR headset category, including Meta Quest 3 and the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple Vision Pro, is expected to fall 15 per cent in 2026 to 4.7 million shipments.
Contractions are expected to continue into 2027, marking a fifth straight year of decline since the category’s pandemic-fuelled peak in 2021 and 2022. A return to growth is forecast for 2028, with shipments rising to 5 million units. That recovery depends on Job’s Mob launching a more accessible Vision Pro around 2028.
Omdia thinks that could give Samsung and Vivo the nudge to make a more competitive push. Without that, the segment’s growth prospects look about as firm as a metaverse keynote.
Tethered headsets are still falling off a cliff, with shipments expected to drop 34 per cent in 2026 to 500,000 units. Standalone alternatives are eating what remains of that market.
Omdia senior analyst Qiran Ju said: “Despite maturing technology, bulky XR headsets struggle to demonstrate everyday utility for mainstream consumers. Meta has prioritised AI glasses, while Google signalled a similar direction through emphasis on XR glasses at I/O 2026. Lighter form factors are better positioned to gain widespread consumer acceptance and steer the future of XR development.”
