Worldwide shipments of virtual and augmented reality headsets dropped 12% to 9.6 million this year according to data from CCS Insight - a problem for and other tech companies that are invested in the digital worlds' potential.
VR headset sales in the U.S.

also slumped 2% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion as of early December, data shared with CNBC by research firm NPD Group reveals. 
More than a year after 's company rebranded itself and almost two months after it , Meta's long-term bet on consumers' embrace of the has yet to pay dividends. 
VR headset sales in the U.S.

also slumped 2% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion as of early December, data shared with CNBC by research firm NPD Group reveals
The California-based company has lost over $30 billion on the metaverse and its first effort at a virtual world, betpark Horizon Worlds, has been deemed 'buggy' and isn't popular internally with employees. 
The concept is that consumers will one day want to work, play and spend money in yet-to-exist digital worlds that can be accessed by headsets like Meta's Quest 2. 
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That device, which analysts say is the leader in the VR market, saw its sales drop in 2022 - which can be attributed to the great year it had in 2021 as consumers rushed to try it out.  
'VR had an amazing holiday in 2021,' Ben Arnold, NPD's consumer electronics analyst, told