VR Business Ideas: How to Pick One & Make It Profitable

Right now, VR businesses are the biggest they’ve ever been—and they’re predicted to grow even bigger. As recent data shows, the global AR and VR market is expected to reach around $46.6 billion in 2025. Moreover, it will grow over 7.4% annually through 2029, highlighting its long-term potential within the global economy.

In this article, we’ll cover the biggest trends driving the virtual reality industry and provide you with 20 popular VR business ideas to consider. We’ll also challenge misconceptions around startup costs, including the myth that VR hardware is extremely expensive. Finally, we’ll show you how to start a successful company of your own, providing you with a step-by-step guide to success.

AR/VR business ideas can be divided into three distinct categories:

• Consumer experiences include things like VR arcades, gaming centers, and other entertainment venues. With virtual technology, consumers can interact with immersive arcade environments, step into their favorite games, and experience live events.

• Enterprise solutions include everything from corporate training to healthcare simulations. A recent study showed that virtual technology is very effective in soft skills training, with “v-learners” reporting higher confidence and greater focus. Additionally, VR mitigates the risk associated with things like surgical training while often providing a more cost-effective solution.

• Tech development businesses develop the software and hardware behind virtual technology. This includes everything from apps, platforms, and simulation engines to headsets, motion controllers, and sensors. These companies also develop VR content, like games, training modules, and virtual tours.

Considering which category suits you best is a great first step when narrowing down VR business ideas.

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to enter the AR and VR sector, the first step is finding your niche. In this section, you’ll find concise breakdowns of 20 virtual reality business examples to inspire you.

Unfortunately, despite increasing user adoption rates, not everyone has access to a VR headset. Arcades and gaming lounges bring virtual experiences to a wider public, facilitating gaming parties with friends, family nights out, and even team-building exercises.

Escape rooms have seen an increase in popularity in recent years; VR could elevate these experiences further by allowing for more elaborate and immersive themes without businesses having to spend a fortune on renovations.

Generic property descriptions can only convey so much. Virtual tours, on the other hand, have the potential to be much more effective, enabling their buyers to get a much better sense of the space.

VR can be used to create effective training simulations for a wide range of enterprises. These can help create a more memorable learning experience, as trainees get to learn by practical application rather than reading endless documents. Depending on the industry and scale of deployment, VR training can even be more cost-effective in the long run.

Currently, as many as two million people use VR to enhance their exercise routines. With this technology, consumers can transport their workouts to some of the world’s most beautiful sites or build up a sweat fighting their way through fantastical environments.

In the tourism industry, VR is most often used for marketing purposes at travel agencies so that potential travelers can explore their dream destinations before even booking a flight. Hotels can also use VR to provide potential visitors with detailed tours and give them a feel for the place.

Virtual car showrooms present many benefits to prospective customers. As well as being able to view available vehicles in an interactive digital space, they can try out customizations in real time and experiment with different colors and interiors.

VR is already being used to host events, bringing the excitement of live performance into your very living room. At a time when concert tickets regularly cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, this technology provides fans with a more affordable viewing alternative.

Many of the VR business ideas on this list wouldn’t exist without the work of content creation studios. These companies design and develop virtual experiences for consumers, whether in the form of video games, training simulations, or educational apps.

Virtual reality is already used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of phobias and PTSD to provide patients with exposure therapy in a safe, controlled space. Some VR mental health apps can also be used to manage stress with guided meditations, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques.

VR educational platforms help students of all ages connect with course material, whether by facilitating the exploration of historic sites or enabling virtual science experiments. In addition, these platforms can be used to create specialized curricula tailored to the needs of disabled pupils.

Conducting surgery simulations in a virtual environment eliminates any risk to the patient and gives trainees the confidence to handle surgeries and emergency situations. Oftentimes, VR training proves to be a more cost-effective solution, as well.

Using VR for architecture is helpful as it provides users with the chance to create interactive visualizations of designs and detect issues before construction begins. These visualizations can also be used to secure funding, providing investors with a solid idea of what to expect.

Recent figures indicate that e-commerce counts for a little over 16% of all retail sales. Virtual reality can be put to good use in online shopping, as it lets consumers see how an item looks and functions before they commit to a purchase.

There are loads of good VR business ideas around social networking, which allow people to “hang out” and chat in immersive virtual spaces. The single most popular example of this is VRChat, a virtual world platform that first came onto the scene in 2014 and remains popular to this day.

In recent years, a growing awareness of head trauma and its repercussions has led to new health and safety protocols in the sports industry. Some experts suggest that VR technology could be used in sports training to assist in the development of proper techniques while minimizing risk in a controlled virtual environment.

With VR movie theaters, film buffs can enjoy an immersive movie experience from the comfort of their own homes. On these platforms, users can choose between a range of different environments, including classic cinemas, drive-in outdoor theaters, and more.

VR headsets are getting more affordable every year, but they still may be out of some people’s price range. Hardware rental services offer individuals and businesses who can’t afford their own setup the opportunity to experience the fun of VR.

Many of the world’s best and most highly valued pieces of art are housed in galleries on the other side of the globe. VR galleries afford art lovers the chance to see these works in a fully immersive environment.

When creating any new startup, one important step is validating your business idea—in other words, making sure it’s actually feasible. The current failure rate for new companies sits at 90%, with 10% failing within the first year. If you don’t want to add to these statistics, validation is a crucial next step.

First, you should conduct effective market research to determine how large your target audience is and what their pain points are. With this information, you will be able to put together informed business strategies and tailor your products to meet the needs and desires of your core demographic. You should start by clearly defining your research goals and identifying your target audience, after which you can use both quantitative and qualitative data to gain insights and relevant statistics. Additionally, remember to keep apprised of the latest market developments and allow these trends to inform your research.

Competitive gap analysis is another important step in the validation process. Once you’ve released a product, you can use standard gap analysis to compare your company’s actual performance against the results you expected to get. Competitive gap analysis takes this one step further by comparing your products to those of your market rivals, allowing you to assess their strengths and weaknesses—and your own.

The third and final step in startup validation is Minimum Viable Product testing, known as MVP testing for short. This is when a company releases the most basic version of its product to a small group of people to observe how they interact with it and collect useful feedback. The purpose of MVP testing isn’t really to perfect your product; rather, it is about trying to determine whether its core functionality will be genuinely useful for your target market. In other words, it’s essential when validating any new business.

One of the main concerns entrepreneurs have about creating a VR startup is money: how much is the hardware and software? What about franchise costs? And are there any hidden expenses new founders should look out for? We’ll answer these questions here.

The exact cost of VR hardware and software depends on what type of service you plan to provide and the scale at which you intend to operate. With that said, there are more affordably priced options on the market than you may expect.

It is entirely possible to purchase VR hardware and software, even with a small budget. What founders really need to watch out for are hidden costs, which we’ll cover in just a moment.

If you want to establish yourself under a preexisting VR brand, then you’ll also have to consider franchise costs. These can be fairly high, with some plans costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. However, customers benefit from access to training and support, better job security, and faster returns on investments.

As we’ve explained, VR hardware and software are more affordable than you might think. Oftentimes, hidden costs are what drive up overheads and make virtual businesses so expensive to launch. Here are just some of the unexpected expenses that take many startup founders by surprise:

• Compliance and content licensing fees. Together, IP/content licensing, data privacy, legal compliance, and insurance can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

• Infrastructure and maintenance. Yes, VR hardware and software are fairly affordable—but you also need powerful PCs and stable network infrastructure to support them. This, in addition to hardware and software maintenance, can also cost thousands.

• Marketing and promotional activities. Even using low-cost marketing techniques, you can expect to spend at least $10,000 on initial promotional activities alone.

• Venue rental and setup. Exact rental prices are heavily dependent on location and venue size, varying from under $1,000 to over $80,000 per month. You should also consider things like decor and utilities, which make things even more expensive.

When you partner with a VR franchise, they will take care of some of these issues for you, though precisely what costs they will cover varies between companies. At Another World, for example, licensing, registration, and marketing materials are all taken care of for you. Founders also benefit from access to custom design projects, training, a website with integrated booking and CRM functionality, and more.

Headsets vary wildly in price, with the most affordable at around $299 and the most expensive costing over $10,000. Some software packages are free to use, while others are available for monthly or annual subscriptions, with the most affordable plans being around $200.

When monetizing your virtual reality business ideas, there are a few different options to consider. For example, should you offer a subscription-based service or focus on one-time sales? Should you use a B2B model or form a B2C company instead? This section will help you answer these questions.

Subscription-based and one-time purchase business models each come with their own pros and cons. The former involves charging customers a recurring fee in return for access to products or services and is a good choice for businesses looking to generate a steady revenue stream. Subscriptions provide customers with a strong incentive to continue using your product, though startups must offer enough value to justify the ongoing fee in the first place.

With one-time purchase models, customers make a single payment to access a particular product or service. These purchases represent a larger up-front income than a subscription. The drawback, however, is that you can’t rely on a steady revenue stream.

B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) models also come with their own advantages and disadvantages. The former focuses on building long-term relationships with other companies, charging premium fees in return for expertise and customized solutions. As a result, while sales cycles are typically longer, they tend to result in higher-value transactions than most B2C deals.

On the other hand, while B2C sales are often smaller, companies using this model benefit from a much larger and more varied audience. This is because B2C businesses drive sales through brand-focused marketing campaigns, with the aim of increasing overall visibility and attracting new leads. When operated at scale and managed efficiently, they can be just as profitable as B2Bs.

The next question to answer is whether you want to go it alone with your very own startup or join a VR franchise. As we’ve already mentioned, there are many advantages to the latter—advantages that offer founders a more secure path to reliable profits.

When you buy into a franchise, you benefit from its existing success, meaning your company is at far lower risk of failure than an independent startup. Additionally, if the franchise already enjoys strong brand visibility, you’ll likely see a faster ROI (return on investment) than if you were to start your own company from scratch. This is because your audience is already in place, and you’re immediately provided with the marketing materials needed to draw them in.

On top of this built-in branding, you’ll also have access to training materials and operational support that can help you get started on the right foot. This level of structure and guidance can be especially helpful for first-time entrepreneurs, providing you with a valuable safety net and ensuring you avoid common pitfalls.

So, to sum up, here is a step-by-step action plan to help you launch your own VR business in 2025:

• Define your niche. Decide whether you’d rather focus on consumer experiences, enterprise solutions, or tech development. Brainstorm a few company ideas (or borrow them from our list of virtual reality business opportunities) and find one that speaks to you.

• Validate your business idea. Conducting market research can help you determine who your target audience is and what their pain points are, while competitive gap analysis can give you an edge in the market. Finally, MVP testing can provide you with valuable feedback to help determine how effective your product is.

• Consider costs. Outline a clear budget, taking into account overheads, hardware, and software, and carefully checking for any hidden fees.

• Choose a business model. Subscription-based or one-time payment; B2B or B2C. Each of these options has its own pros and cons that you should weigh carefully before making a decision.

• Consider tools and partnerships to accelerate growth. Analytics and customer management software are necessities for any startup. You may also want to consider joining a franchise like Another World to help build momentum from day one.

Follow these pointers to hit the ground running and set yourself up for success in the virtual reality market.

If you have a few VR business ideas of your own and are looking to make them a reality, you should consider a partnership with Another World VR Franchise. AW currently boasts over 380 partnerships spread across 52 countries, helping facilitate unforgettable memories for around 100,000 players every month.

Joining this franchise, you can hit the ground running thanks to AW’s quick VR arena launch and tailored partnership terms. You can also avoid falling into the common pitfall of forgetting about steep startup costs and getting hit with an unexpectedly large bill. What’s more, you’ll benefit from a refined marketing strategy and an average monthly revenue of $10,000 per location, guaranteeing your success and longevity.

Interested in finding out more about this exciting partnership opportunity? Leave a request with Another World!