Also, games like Super Mario AR for Hololens and the recently announced Space Invaders AR by Square Enix are tapping into ’80s nostalgia to enhance the AR gaming experience even more. After being in a lockdown for a long, players will choose AR games as an outdoor entertainment and socializing medium.

These games seamlessly blend into your space. It frees them from the stationery PC keyboard-and-mouse setup and turns their surroundings (and even outdoors) into their playground.AR games also do not have any hardware limitations of clicking speed, spacebar counter, game controllers, and so on.

Gaming experience: AR games provide a completely different gaming experience to which users will eventually adapt.

According to a report from ABI Research, the total funding and M&A value in the AR/VR ecosystem surpassed $2 billion in 2020.Īs more funds are pumped into the AR/VR ecosystem, it will grow at a faster pace and recover from the pandemic slow down very soon. MAD Gaze, Nreal, Mira, and North are among other companies that received funding last year. While the AR/VR investments saw a drop in Q1 2020, later in the year, investors continued to show their belief in AR startups despite the pandemicMagic Leap raised a $350 million lifeline in May 2020 right at the peak of the pandemic.

More funding raised by AR/VR companies: For any industry to flourish, it needs funds.

With increased availability and enhanced technology, AR numbers should spike in the coming years. Google’s ARCore, with its fairly good improvements, is making the technology available to a vast segment of the audience, as Android has more user base than iOS worldwide. Apple is also set to enter the smart glasses market by 2022, which will be a game-changer for the industry. This allows Apple’s ARKit developers to tap into the power of the latest iPhones’ LiDAR hardware. Apple’s latest ARkit 4.0 now includes location anchors, improved depth API, and better face-tracking.

Improved technologies: Apple and Google are continuously improving AR technologies that most AR developers use.

More studios are expected to bring AR-based apps and games that will eventually increase the size of consumers. gaming industry, the industry’s EBITDA that plunged 39% in 2020 is expected to improve by 45% in 2021.With an overall recovery in the game industry, the AR market will definitely get a push.

Economic recovery from the pandemic: The game industry is all set for economic recovery starting from 2021.

Let us have a look at what are the main factors that will positively affect the AR market in the coming years. It suggests that the global AR gaming market could hit $28.6 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 34.80% during 2021-2026.Īlthough the CAGR of 34.8% is about 8%-10% lower than what it could have been normally, this data suggests that AR gaming is already set into the recovery mode and we can expect a bounce-back by 2026. The good news is that the same research also forecasts an expected bounce-back. Such a growth rate essentially meant that the industry was booming and could have crossed the $5 billion mark very easily in 2020.īut recent research published in February confirmed the 2020 market valuation for AR gaming remained at $4.7 billion, which is almost $300 million lower than the expectations. The global AR gaming market hit $2.82 billion in 2019 with an expected CAGR of over 48%. And Pokémon Go crossed the 1 billion downloads in July 2019. within a week, while Harry Potter: Wizards Unite clocked $12 million in revenue in its first month of release.

Minecraft Earth touched 1 million users in the U.S. In 2019, some popular AR games such as Minecraft Earth, Pokémon Go, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite performed well in revenues and users.

To answer these questions, let us first dig into this market’s growth rate before and during the pandemic.

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