apps, headsets and immersive experiences
While during the pandemic whole countries were experiencing restrictions and lockdowns, many people turned to virtual sources for entertainment and exercise. Since restrictions have eased there has been an increase in interest in participatory virtual reality leisure, as people are looking to enjoy more experiences out of the home.
Virtual reality leisure can take many forms from online exercise classes, virtual reality devices for home use which link to a PC, to immersive virtual reality experiences where the user become part in a virtual fantasy environment, to augmented reality (AR) apps like Pokémon go! – all are valid forms of recreation and leisure.
Virtual reality sports and physical activities
The majority of the virtual leisure market is the digital fitness market, with billions of pounds invested in the leisure form over the course of the pandemic.
Sport England has recently launched their own on-demand fitness platform, the “Studio You” is a virtual library of non-competitive and non-traditional activities to appeal to adolescent girls. Teenage girls are less likely to be active than their male peers, with almost two-thirds of adolescent girls not meeting physical activity guidelines.
“Studio You” is supported by the Association for Physical Education, the free-platform enables PE teachers and coaches to teach classes in activities such as yoga, boxing, Pilates and dance – alternative sports to appeal to teenage girls.
Experts in the industry are touting a new development in virtual reality where augmented reality (AR) blends with organised fitness.
Virtual reality experiences at tourism attractions
A new international VR experience is popping up in many locations across the world, the installation is a spin-off for the Star Wars, where participants can train and battle with characters from the franchise.
The launch of this VR experience, heralds a new era of virtual leisure where individuals can participate in games with their favourite character universes.
The increase in this new sector of virtual entertainment, where people can travel to a visitor attraction to enjoy an immersive experience
Augmented reality apps
Pokemon Go! Was a tremendous successfully augmented reality (AR) app, launched in 2016 it reached a global peak usage of 250million users. However, Pokémon Go made $1.23 billion revenue in 2020 higher than its peak usage back when launched in 2016.
The AR app had over 1.1 billion downloads in 2020, The United States accounted for 19 percent of Pokémon Go downloads in 2019, followed by Brazil and India at 10 and 6 percent, respectively.