Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg received more bad news over the holiday season, as his foray into the metaverse has yet to bear fruit for his struggling tech company.

Sales of virtual reality (VR) headsets were down 2% year-over-year in 2022, researchers told CNBC on Wednesday.

In early December, VR headset sales brought in just $1.1 billion, according to research analytics firm NDP Group.

Ben Arnold, a consumer electronics analyst for NPD, told CNBC that sales of Meta’s $400-a-unit VR Quest 2 headset, which is considered the standard in the market, also declined, though he didn’t say by how much.

Overall, there was a 12% drop in the number of global augmented reality (AR) and VR headset shipments compared to 2021, according to…