Global shipments of XR headsets and glasses rose 35.3% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, strong growth but a significant moderation from the 130.2% increase IDC tracked in the prior quarter. Much of that slowdown reflects tougher comparisons and a pause between major product cycles rather than any softening in consumer interest. Growth should pick back up as the next wave of product launches arrives later this year.
Audio glasses, the display-less category that includes devices like Ray-Ban Meta, represented the largest portion of shipments, capturing 70.3% share during the quarter, up from 61.9% a year ago. Display glasses represented 14.3% share, up from 11% a year ago, while headsets held the remaining 15.4%. Glasses overall have turned a corner and are quickly being recognized by a mainstream audience. Recent privacy backlash over always-on recording shows not all of that attention is flattering.
Who’s winning right now: Q2 2026 market share
Meta continued to dominate the market with 68.7% share. Its growth this quarter came from pushing into two additional segments: prescription eyewear, with the launch of its Blayzer and Scriber Optics lines, and lower-cost options that skip the fashion branding EssilorLuxottica normally provides. That expansion is only part of the story. Meta’s lead also rests on distribution scale, brand recognition, and AI features built across its product line, advantages that are harder for challengers to replicate than any single hardware launch.
| Company | Q2 2026 Market Share |
| Meta | 68.7% |
| RayNeo | 3.6% |
| Alibaba Group | 2.6% |
| XREAL | 2.5% |
| Xiaomi | 2.3% |
| Others | 20.4% |
RayNeo ranked second with 3.6% share, up 83.3% year over year, on the strength of its low-cost, personal-theater-style devices. Alibaba, a relative newcomer to the category, ranked third at 2.6% share thanks to the popularity of Qwen and the company’s already-established presence in China. XREAL and Xiaomi rounded out the top five, though Xiaomi’s share nearly halved from a year ago as competition in its home market intensified.
What’s coming next: The launches that could reshuffle the board
A lot is going to change in the remaining months of 2026 as next-gen products arrive from multiple vendors, each chasing a similar set of goals: more capable AI experiences, lighter hardware, and use cases that go beyond entertainment into everyday productivity. Those shared priorities, more than any single launch, will shape competition through the rest of the year.
Snap is launching its Specs, which bring genuine AR capabilities packaged into the most consumer-friendly design the category has seen yet, backed by a marketing campaign built around fashion icons.
Samsung and XREAL are both readying Android XR products. XREAL’s Aura pairs the company’s personal-theater-style hardware, already strong for content consumption, with Google’s Android XR platform, putting productivity use cases on equal footing with entertainment. Samsung’s audio glasses, meanwhile, bring Google’s Gemini assistant together with the distribution and design sensibility of Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.
Meta’s upcoming Connect event is widely expected to launch a more premium mixed reality headset with better visuals and a slimmer, lighter form factor that should appeal to enthusiasts. IDC also anticipates new display and audio glasses at the show, with the display glasses aimed at broader availability and a more accessible price point.
Beyond these headline launches, products from Pico, RayNeo, Viture, and a growing list of other brands will help drive further growth in 2026 and into the years ahead.
The road ahead: Forecast 2026–2028
IDC forecasts total unit shipments will grow 26.3% in 2026, then accelerate to 40.5% growth in 2027 and another 26.4% in 2028. Audio glasses will keep leading the category, though display glasses and headsets will continue to ramp alongside them.
For consumers, that growth will be driven by a wider range of products, price points, and channels, plus the spread of AI and friction-reducing use cases like easy photo and video capture. Among businesses, training and design use cases will keep driving adoption, since IDC has tracked ROI gains in early enterprise pilots, and more businesses continue to start them.
Growing pains: Privacy and business-model tension
There are also growing concerns behind the scenes that need to be addressed, as they stand to reshape the adoption curve going forward.
Privacy and shifting consumer attitudes. Many products and services surrounding XR glasses have clear, tangible benefits, though IDC has tracked growing concern over the need for privacy controls. IDC has also observed a shift from early jokes about social acceptance to more serious concerns about the lack of meaningful notice and consent mechanisms while recording, along with AI-enabled data collection, raising the stakes for how vendors respond. Meta, the current leader, has taken action to reduce misuse of its products, but those steps came only after public backlash forced its hand. That leaves room for a competitor willing to build privacy safeguards in before launch, not after a headline forces the issue.
Competing business models. XR glasses are a relatively new category, and tech companies are quickly partnering with fashion companies to leverage their expertise in design, manufacturing, and distribution. There’s tension between these camps, though, as fashion companies often operate on higher margins while tech companies are willing to sacrifice margin in favor of ongoing subscription or advertising-based models, where the hardware can be offered at a lower upfront cost to keep the consumer inside the ecosystem. This is likely one reason Meta launched glasses without EssilorLuxottica’s branding. It also puts smaller players at a disadvantage, since they face pricing pressure on hardware from incumbents like Meta and potentially Google and Samsung, and will likely have to adjust their own business models to offer subscription services alongside their XR products going forward.
What this means for the industry
Smart glasses are genuinely being worn now, not just tested, and that changes the competitive picture. Meta still holds the lead, but the next round of launches from Snap, Samsung, XREAL, and Meta’s own Connect event will show whether that lead holds up. The rest of 2026 will be shaped as much by these launches as by the numbers themselves. Even with this quarter’s slower growth, consumer awareness keeps building and AI is unlocking new use cases — the vendors that move first on privacy may be the ones who convert that awareness into share.