30m virtual reality headsets will ship by 2020, report claims

Virtual reality headset shipments will reach 30 million by 2020, a new report claims.

Juniper Research believes next year will see just over three million VR headsets sold. Hardware revenue from HMD sales is expected to exceed $4 billion by 2020.

The biggest market for VR is expected to be North America, which it claims will take up nearly half of all shipments. Other popular markets include the Far East and Asia, which takes up the second largest share, and Western Europe.

Adoption of VR headsets will initially largely be driven by video and gaming use cases, according to Juniper. It stated however that VR has the potential to "quickly expand" into other markets, such as industryial and healthcare.

With the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR set to launch for early 2016, and Valve’s Vive headset expected to go on full sale during the same period after initial limited shipments this year, Juniper expects it to be a watershed year for virtual reality.