June 8th, 2022, Janice Fernandes
The pandemic accelerated the embrace of VR technology but now 'in real life’ is starting to open up again, are consumers still as interested in shopping and leisure in virtual reality as they were?
Year-over-year trended data from a global YouGov poll reveals current interest in watching sport, playing video games, enjoying live performances, taking in a movie and shopping in 3D virtual reality – and how it compares to last year.
Survey data – conducted in 17 markets in 2021, and 18 markets in 2022 – shows that playing video games in VR saw the most decline in consumer interest in 2022 from 37% to 30% globally. This interest fell in all 17 markets in which YouGov conducted its research. In both Great Britain and US, interest in VR gaming fell eight points (from 31% in 2021 to 23% in 2022).
Appetite for watching sports in virtual reality sees a marginal decrease in consumers globally, from 21% to 20%. In Hong Kong the share increased from 18% in 2021 to 23% in 2022, while in UAE it increased by two points to 36%. Interest in Singapore is down a significant five points to 18% and down four points in Indonesia to 25%.
Globally, interest in attending live performances using 3D virtual reality saw a drop of five points (27% in 2021 vs. 22% in 2022). Hong Kong is the only country to show a marginal increase in share, from 27% in 2021 to 28% in 2022.
Watching movies using VR also sees an overall decline in the proportion of consumers who are interested. In Great Britain, the number dropped from 22% in 2021 to 15% in 2022, but there’s only a three-point drop in the US (23% to 20%). While the rest of the markets have seen a drop in appetite, the share stays flat in India.
Data indicates that global interest in VR has declined in all but one area – shopping. And there are only a handful of market exceptions where interest in VR activities has increased.
Shopping is the exception to the rule when it comes to declining interest in VR experiences. There’s a slight increase in the number of consumers globally who are interested in using VR to shop (from 17% in 2021 to 19% in 2022). France is the only market with a significant drop in interest over the year (13% vs. 5%). Germany sees an increase from 11% to 14%, while Poland sees a 13-point increase to 31%.
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2022 Methodology: The latest data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 519 and 2,014 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in April 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.
2021 Methodology: The data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 511 to 2,107 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in March 2021. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.