The German banking and financial services giant Deutsche Bank has projected the virtual reality industry to be worth up to $7 Billion within 5 years as mainstream adoption of the immersive technology ramps up post retail release in 2016.
The report, released yesterday and dissected by Bidness, explores the various VR niches and segments that currently exist, projecting out 5 years to it’s ultimate figure.
Interesting snippets include an estimate that Facebook may earn upwards of $600 Million just from virtual reality related transactions next year alone. That seems to be based on the company shifting 1.5M Oculus Rifts between release in Q1 2016 and the close of the financial year – what seems like quite an optimistic figure.
The report seems to think that mobile will be a great and powerful catalyst for virtual reality growth too, in fact Deutsche Bank state that “mobile VR attach rates” may reach 3% in the next five years – that is, companion hardware sold alongside a mobile phone (i.e. Gear VR).
It’s a staggering estimate and does seem to err on the side of optimistic, but when such a respected source starts throwing around such big numbers, you have to think there’s something in this virtual reality thing we’re all obsessed with.