Consumer Mixed Reality App Installs Will Reach 10 Billion by 2024

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the number of consumer mixed reality app installs will reach 10 billion by 2024, rising from 3 billion in 2019. Mixed reality overlays interactive digital images and videos onto the real world through a smartphone, tablet or smart glasses.

The new research identified social media and games as the key app categories that will drive adoption. It forecasts that these categories will account for over half of the global mixed reality market value by 2024.

The new data shows that 75% of the consumer mixed reality market, by value, will be attributable to in‑app purchases by 2024. However, the research warns that these apps will suffer from high app abandonment rates similar to the wider app market. In response, app developers are urged to continually update offerings over the lifecycle of the app to ensure that the user proposition is maintained.

“Despite temptations to continually grow the app user base, app developers must have a primary focus on retaining existing users. Successful mixed reality app developers, Niantic and Snap, have continued to leverage their significant user bases by ensuring that app content is consistently refreshed, therefore benefiting from continued user spend,“ said research author Sam Barker.

The research predicts that advertising spend over consumer mixed reality apps will reach $11 billion by 2024; rising from $2 billion in 2019. In order for advertising over mixed reality content to become appealing to high spending advertisers, the research recommends that advertising processes must mirror advertising processes in the wider market.

It urges the ecosystem to adopt advertising attribution platforms and fraud prevention tools, in order to attract high advertising spend. However, the research also warns that over-exposing users to advertising content will lead swiftly to high disengagement levels.