Last updated on November 8, 2021

Millennials are not buying into VR

Did you think VR was going to be the next big thing? You might want to guess again. 

Over the past few years, VR sales have proven to be at a crawl. Last year alone, Statista reported that only 6 million VR units were sold… worldwide. To give some point of reference to that stat, Sony sold 19 million PlayStation 4 consoles in one single year globally.

While 6 million is no number to scoff at, Google Trends suggests that the majority of these sales were during the holiday time frame and VR was given as a gift. But are those consumers using them?

As The Motley Fool reminds us, increased sales during the holiday season don’t accurately reflect long-term value as some consumer goods tend to boom during the holiday season and bust the rest of the time.

Curious about this, we asked our Canadian panel their thoughts on purchasing a virtual reality headset. With a sample size of just over 8,500 respondents here are the insights we found.

Virtual Reality is facing a tough crowd

  • 9.6% are likely to purchase a VR headset
    • 2.9% are very likely to purchase
    • 6.7% are somewhat likely to purchase
  • 75.3% are unlikely to purchase a VR headset
    • 13.7% are somewhat unlikely to purchase
    • 61.6% are very unlikely to purchase 
    • Only 5.4% are willing to try virtual reality

Younger generations are interested in VR though, right?

Guess again. Despite having their phones glued to their face, VR might be a little too up close and personal for Millennials and Gen Z’ers.

  • 72.8% of Millennials are unlikely to purchase VR
    • 58% are very unlikely to purchase
    • 14.8% are somewhat unlikely to purchase 
    • 6,3% are willing to try VR
  • 61.8% of Gen Z’ers are unlikely to purchase VE
    • 39.3% are very unlikely to purchase 
    • 22.5% are somewhat unlikely to purchase 
    • 12.4% are willing to try VR

So why the lack of interest in Virtual Reality?

It may seem that VR is just too early on in the market. The technology has a lot of potential but research suggests that there are a few variables that are deterring consumers from purchasing.

Just not that interested in VR

A study conducted by Nielsen found that of nearly 1,000 survey members, 53% of them were not interested in trying out the headset.

No Call of Duty to Play VR Games

The whole point of using VR is to feel like you’re actually in the game right? That can make things a little difficult when there aren’t many games you can play on VR. Games often don’t meet the quality as other gaming consoles do, or games last a total of an hour and have no sense of wanting more afterword.

Need a virtual wallet to buy VR

If potential buyers were to do a cost-benefit analysis of purchasing a VR headset, consumers might stick to the traditional gaming platforms. 

On the lower end, VR products appear under $200 and reach costs over $600. Cell Phone companies might be able to charge high prices for their products, but VR just doesn’t have that kind of audience just yet.

Caddle Panel Agrees

Our Canadian panel of survey respondents tend to agree with the above mentioned. 

The top three reasons why Canadians would consider trying VR are:

  • Attractive pricing (28%)
  • Curiosity (22.5%)
  • New VR games (14.6%)

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by Caddle and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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