Global shipments of augmented and virtual reality headsets have fallen 12% to 9.6 million this year, according to data from CCS Insight, an issue for Meta and other tech companies investing in the potential of digital worlds.

Sales of VR headsets in the US also fell 2% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion in early December, data shared with CNBC by research firm NPD Group reveals.

More than a year after Mark Zuckerberg’s company changed its name and nearly two months after it laid off 11,000 employees, Meta’s long-term bid for consumer acceptance of the metaverse has yet to pay off. .

Sales of VR headsets in the US also fell 2% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion in early December, data shared with CNBC by research firm NPD Group reveals.

The California-based…