Virtual reality isn’t new — the first VR headset debuted in 1968 — but it wasn’t until recently that the technology became mainstream. Today, it’s a massive and growing market and drawing the attention of all types of investors.
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The virtual reality market in the U.S. alone is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 23.8% from 2025 to 2030, according to Grand View Research. The projected revenue for the industry in 2030 is $21.7 billion. And the U.S. is by no means the only consumer in the market. Global revenue for the virtual reality market is forecast to hit $77.2 billion in 2030.
For investors who want to get in on an exploding industry, these five companies are some of the best VR stocks to watch right now:
| Stock | Year-to-date performance* |
| Nvidia Corp. (ticker: NVDA) | 10.2% |
| Meta Platforms Inc. (META) | 21.8% |
| Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) | 37.7% |
| Unity Software Inc. (U) | 7.0% |
| Sony Group Corp. (SONY) | 18.1% |
*As of June 24 close.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
“Philosophically, whether we are talking about AI or virtual reality, we believe that the best play when it comes to these developing and nascent technologies is to adopt the ‘pick-and-shovels’ approach,” says Daniel Milan, investment advisor representative and managing partner at Cornerstone Financial Services in Southfield, Michigan. “What we mean by that is the most opportunistic approach is to not invest in the gold miners themselves but instead in the companies that sell the picks, shovels and tents necessary to mine or find the gold.”
The gold in question here is semiconductors and chips, and as a leading designer of graphics processing units, or GPUs, for gaming consoles and PCs, Nvidia is one heck of a pick-and-shovel company.
“Nvidia has specific virtual reality GPUs that are best in the business, and even software developer kits to deliver the best performance (and) images,” Milan says. “No one delivers a higher quality ‘pick and shovel’ than Nvidia, and thus they are poised to significantly benefit from this technology transition.”
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Meta Platforms Inc. (META)
While not a strictly-VR company, any discussion of virtual reality must include Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The fact that Meta has its fingers in many pies makes it a top VR stock, according to Steven Conners, founder and president of Conners Wealth Management in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“Until the market becomes more defined, larger companies in this space might make more sense for investors,” he says. Larger companies like Meta can afford to invest in VR without risking the overall business.
For instance, it has its own flagship VR headset lineup. The latest iteration is the Meta Quest 3. Meta also partners with eyewear company EssilorLuxottica to create smart eyewear products like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The duo recently announced plans to release Oakley and Prada versions of the smart glasses.
As a leader in VR platforms, Meta has already built a sizable lead in both bringing VR to the masses and monetizing it. It also happens to be the second largest holding in the Morningstar Global Metaverse & Virtual Interaction Select index, which is designed to provide pure exposure to the metaverse and virtual interaction theme. Of course, this doesn’t discount the many regulatory headwinds that Meta and the rest of Big Tech are facing.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA)
Online and mobile commerce giant Alibaba is another company with fingers in many pies, including VR. It has been strategically positioning itself as a key enabler of immersive VR experiences for shoppers.
It introduced VR shopping experiences in 2016, and has since hosted experiences like virtual fashions shows in its luxury shopping platform, Tmall Luxury Pavilion.
“The Taobao/Tmall marketplaces remain as Alibaba’s core cash flow driver and can support the expansion of AliCloud as well as the firm’s globalization strategy, which offers long-term growth potential,” writes Morningstar senior equity analyst Chelsey Tam.
The company’s other VR ventures include TaoAvatar, which creates lifelike virtual human avatars, virtual factory floors called Digital Twins and the ability for businesses to create customized metaverses through Cloudverse.
While the company is losing market share to competitors like PDD and Douyin in China, Tam believes BABA will remain a key player in the e-commerce space. Morningstar gives the stock four out of five stars and a fair market value of $150.
Unity Software Inc. (U)
If you were to look for the picks and shovels behind VR products like the Meta Quest 3, you’d find Unity Software.
The company’s robust and widely adopted real-time 3D development platform has positioned it as a dominant force in the creation of VR experiences. Developers use Unity’s tools, like the XR Interaction Toolkit, which is the interaction system used in the Meta Quest headsets, along with OpenXR and Windows Mixed Reality. BMW Group also recently chose Unity to help it create its 3D asset management platform called 3D Mine.
The company exceeded expectations in its latest revenue announcement, despite revenue being down by 6% year over year. U has also beat analyst EPS estimates for the past three consecutive quarters. The stock returned over 48% in the past year, but is still trading below its $26 analyst price target. Morningstar gives the stock five out of five stars.
Sony Group Corp. (SONY)
Sony entered the VR space with its first virtual reality headset, the PlayStation VR, back in 2016. It went on to sell 5 million units by 2020, and in 2023, the company released the updated VR2.
In 2024, Sony announced its “Creative Entertainment Vision.” Over the next 10 years, Sony plans to work with creators to “seamlessly connect multi-layered worlds at the point where the physical and the virtual overlap,” according to the company’s CEO Hiroki Totoki.
Toward this end, it launched XYN in early 2025 to help developers replicate real world objects in a virtual reality.
The company expects earnings to remain stable over the coming fiscal year, something Kazunori Ito, director of Japan and technology research for Morningstar, takes as a good sign. “Sony’s solid operating income guidance shows that the impact of the tariffs is limited, demonstrating the firm’s ability to mitigate the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty with its diversified business portfolio,” Ito writes.
Morningstar gives the stock four out of five stars and a fair market value of $29.50.
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5 Best Virtual Reality Stocks to Buy in 2025 originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 06/25/25: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
