New Delhi, May 22 (IANS): More than 51 million virtual reality (VR) headsets have been shipped worldwide in the past five years, a new report showed on Monday, as Big Tech firms bets big on Metaverse and other augmented reality (AR)-VR technologies.

According to data presented by CasinosEnLigne.com, the installed Base of VR headsets is likely to surge from 51 million to almost 100 million by 2024.

The global VR headset sales are expected to bring in $9.1 billion in revenue in 2023, or 13 per cent more than last year. This also represents a significant increase from the $3.4 billion the entire market grossed just three years ago, said the report.

"Over the past years, the global VR demand has increased significantly. Although gaming remains at the forefront of consumer VR, the technology has found other use cases, like virtual concerts and virtual workouts," the report noted.

Many businesses have also increased their usage of virtual reality, from teaching and designing, to manufacturing and creating a better user experience.

A Statista survey shows that over 65 per cent of total VR headset sales were made in 2021 and 2022, record years for VR shipments.

More than 14.2 million VR headsets were shipped in 2021 alone, almost double the number seen a year before.

In 2022, total shipments jumped to over 19 million worldwide, or more than in 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined.

"Statista expects another 21.7 million units to be shipped this year, despite the sales slowing down. By 2024, the installed base of VR headsets is expected to hit almost 100 million worldwide," the report mentioned.

More than 30 per cent of total revenue comes from China, the world's largest VR market.