How was your holiday period? Did you spend your Christmas in a state of blissful relaxation or did you fall prey to the gluttony of the season? It feeling like you’d eaten so much you’d grown in size by six? Well that might not be the case for you, but it was what happened (somewhat) to virtual reality (VR) during the holiday period – at least according to 360° VR advertising platform OmniVirt.
OmniVirt, not a stranger to news pieces on VRFocus, revealed yesterday in a press release that the company had noticed a very specific spike in the use of VR apps that use its advertising service to monetise their content. More so over Christmas Day in particular VR app usage went up to six times that seen previously on ‘regular’ days. The company however is not surprised by the spike, citing an article in Fortune where it noted that VR related products topped the wish list of a quarter of those in the ‘millennials’ age group.
“The rise of VR usage might be attributed to families and friends sharing fun experiences with new gifts together during the holiday season (think grandparents trying an Oculus Rift or a Google Daydream headset before Christmas dinner) and the ever-increasing amount of high-quality VR content on the market.” Explains OmniVirt, confirming that last year saw also understandably saw a spike in use around the same time. As for what has happened since then it is also good news – at least for those VR apps associated with OmniVirt.
“Post-Christmas growth in usage stabilized to 2x pre-Christmas engagement, according to OmniVirt’s analytics.” Says the company, adding that, “Experts predict faster growth over the course of 2018, especially with the upcoming launches of Oculus Go and Google’s standalone headset. But even amidst increasing usage growth, VR developers look to ensure sustainability by looking into methods to monetize their content, like in-app VR advertising. And rather than wait for next Christmas’ usage lift, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.”
Will such a lift continue over the rest of 2018, until the release of the Standalone VR hardware in the West? Will it be reflected by other services? That is something we will have to see in time – but we will bring you more findings soon, here on VRFocus.