According to IDC's latest data, China's AR/VR headset shipments totaled 107,000 units in the first quarter of 2024, representing a significant year-over-year decline of 37.8%. Despite this downturn, the market shows signs of potential recovery in the latter half of the year.

In Q1 2024, the Augmented Reality (AR) segment saw shipments of 8,000 units, marking an impressive year-over-year increase of 119.2%. The Extended Reality (ER) segment experienced even more robust growth, with shipments reaching 44,000 units, up 136.2% from the previous year.

Conversely, Mixed Reality (MR) shipments dropped by 52.7% to 34,000 units, and Virtual Reality (VR) shipments fell sharply by 72.6% to 22,000 units.

Market Insights and Trends

AR and ER Market Analysis

The combined AR and ER market saw a total of 52,000 units shipped in Q1 2024. Splittable glasses led the ER segment with 44,000 units, reflecting a 150.4% year-over-year growth. Integrated glasses shipments were 8,000 units, ...

Most of the new VR products in China are standalone headsets, with many using Pancake lenses for the consumer market, which sees increasing shipments of VR products as the VR content ecosystem dominated by gaming and fitness is developing, according to IDC.

Consumer standalone VR shipments in China increased by 166.2% year-over-year in the first half of 2022, according to IDC. China standalone VR in Q1 reached 229,000 units shipment while Q2 had almost 273,000 units shipped.

VR Shipment Forecast

IDC has observed these five significant improvements in VR products:

1. Fresnel lens is being gradually replaced by the Pancake lens to improve both visual experience and wear comfort

Traditional 6dof VR standalone headsets often come with a Fresnel lens, which has a significant screen-door effect and leads to a thick front part on the headset.

The standalone headsets launched in the second half of this ye...

Computing power, AI, network communication, and blockchain, as the indispensable infrastructure of the metaverse, play a vital role in the later stage development of the metaverse.

IDC estimates that in 2022, participants in the development of metaverse infrastructure, mainly operators, infrastructure hardware companies, and top Internet companies, will lead the effort. The pace of relevant product R & D, operation platform innovation, and content upgrading will be accelerated.

Top Internet companies independently layout the metaverse platform development

Chinese Internet giants have made corresponding direction choices under the metaverse track according to their own products and positioning characteristics.

In 2022, Internet companies are expected to continue to overweight and layout the metaverse platform in their respective fields, and their interaction and correlation will still be weak.

It is estimated that by 2025, more than 3% of China's Internet users wi...

Total entertainment and media revenue in China is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 3.6% over the next five years, which is higher than the global average of 2.8%, according to the latest report by PwC. 

Digital revenues experienced a drop in 2020 but are expected to grow at 5.4% by 2024, according to PwC. By industry segment, digitally-driven segments will see the most vigorous growth. Virtual reality (VR), OTT, video games, and eSports will take the lead in China.

China’s OTT video market will become increasingly mature, with 12.2% CAGR
China’s movie revenue in the cinema will rebound rapidly to reach 37.8% CAGR
China’s esports revenue has surpassed the United States and South Korea in 2019, becoming the world’s largest esports market.
In 2020, China’s internet advertising revenue will reach US$66.3 billion, with a 7.7% CAGR from 2020 to 2024.

OTT Video
China OTT video revenue reached US$7.7 billion in 2019, the second-largest marke...

The 10 charts from IDC China show the online retail channel trends for the various devices between the Q1 2016 and Q3 2017. They essentially highlight that the online retail channel continues to be an important channel for the sale of devices in China.

The share of online retailers continues to grow for projectors, making up more than 30% of the market in 2017.

In Q2 2017, desktop units sold through JD.com made up 93.7% of the overall units sold through online retailers in China.

From Q1 2017 onwards, Chinese etailers have been making up more than 45% of market share for notebooks. With the help of the 618 Sale in Q2 2017, it also helped eTailers to grow its market share to reach more than 50% then.

The overall monitor market can be seen to be declining. However, the gaming monitor segment is a market that's continuing to grow. It saw an 85.2% YoY growth in Q3 2017 for the overall market, and JD.com saw its sales for gaming monitors growi...