CINNO XResearch: Domestic consumer-grade AI/AR sales increased 65% year-on-year in the first half of the year, AR became the main force for absolute growth

The Zhitong Finance App learned that CINNO • xResearch statistics show that in the first half of 2026, the overall sales volume of the domestic consumer AI/AR equipment market reached 433,000 units, a sharp increase of 65% over the previous year. The industry's growth potential is strong, and it has officially entered a stage of rapid large-scale growth.

Judging from the product structure breakdown, immersive AR devices with screens sold 334,000 units in the first half of the year, up 79% year on year, and continued to be the core pillar of market growth; unscreened AI smart glasses relied on lightweight, everyday wear, and AI intelligent support attributes quickly penetrated, and sales volume was 99,000 units, up 30% year on year. The two categories are being expanded collaboratively to continuously broaden the boundaries of the consumer-grade AR market.

Judging from the performance of segmented AR categories, each track achieved differentiated collaborative growth. Driven by iterations of new products from brands such as Rocky and Qianwen, the immersive space experience continues to be upgraded, and recognition in the high-end market is rapidly increasing; split AR glasses continue to be cultivated by Thunderbird, XREAL, and VITURE. Through polishing the core experience of lightweight wear, high-definition image quality, and spatial stability, the superimposed price band continues to decline, and the price band continues to decline, firmly occupy the mainstream mass consumer market; with the support of brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi (01810) and Thunderbird, AI smart glasses have firmly occupied the mainstream mass consumer market; with the support of brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi (01810) and Thunderbird, AI smart glasses support commuting Continuous implementation, popularization and normalization of wear The attributes are prominent, and the incremental market continues to be leveraged.

Brand pattern in the first half of the year: highly concentrated head and clear echelon differentiation

In the first half of 2026, the top five domestic consumer-grade AI/AR markets led the industry's technology iteration, product pricing, and scenario ecosystem construction. The industry officially bid farewell to internal parameters and entered a stage of comprehensive competition in experience, technology, and ecology.

Thunderbird Innovation ranked the absolute top of the industry with a cumulative sales share of 24.8% in the first half of the year, ranking first in omni-channel sales, and has a stable leading edge. The brand continues to focus on self-research on underlying technology, and relies on the Vision 4000 image quality chip+Zone 360 spatial computing chip dual-core architecture to continuously optimize near-eye display image quality, spatial anchoring stability, and the core experience of low-latency interaction. In the first half of the year, the pace of product iteration was intense. On May 27, two major new product series were released: the Thunderbird GT series AR glasses, which focus on professional cinematic immersive experiences, are equipped with a dual-layer Micro OLED display and a Vision 4000 custom image quality chip to achieve frame-by-frame image quality adjustment and establish a new standard for consumer-grade AR high-definition video viewing; at the same time, the Thunderbird V4 AI shooting glasses were launched to enhance everyday intelligent shooting, lightweight wearing and full-scene AI assistance capabilities to complement the everyday wearing of the public. In the first half of the year, we continued to iterate the product matrix, polish the lightweight airframe, long battery life, and intelligent spatial interaction capabilities, and firmly occupy the leading position in the mass consumer market. In the second half of the year, Thunderbird Innovations released a new iO product line of AI glasses with display. It performed well during the first sale period, and is expected to further expand its advantages.

Rokid (Rokid) was in second place in the industry with a 17.1% share in the first half of the year, and is catching up strongly. Its Glasses series of integrated AR glasses continue to lead the immersive AR segment with screen. The product space experience and stability performance are outstanding, and market recognition continues to increase. In the first half of the year, through methods such as Tyrannosaurus's cross-border co-branded AI smart glasses, global offline advertising exposure, and online content marketing, etc., it quickly raised popular brand awareness, broke the niche label of AR devices, and continued to narrow the share gap with leading brands.

Qianwen ranked third in the industry with a 12.3% share in the first half of the year. It relied on a mature AI ecosystem and accurate mass market layout to achieve rapid expansion. Its S1 and G1 smart glasses performed well in the first half of the year, and G1 screenless AI glasses have been at the top of online sales for a long time. Through star marketing, refined online operations, and cost-effective product strategies, the brand continues to deeply cultivate the sinking market, quickly seize entry-level users, and steadily increase its market influence, focusing on practical scenarios such as daily wear and AI intelligent assistance.

XREAL ranked fourth with a 12.2% share. It is deeply involved in split high-end AR tracks, adheres to an iterative logic that prioritizes experience, does not blindly build up hardware parameters, and continues to carry out in-depth R&D and optimization around lightweight wearing, wearing comfort, and global intelligent interaction throughout the year. The brand completed a two-tier upgrade of the brand and product on May 26, officially launched the young trend secondary brand xbx, and simultaneously launched the first new lightweight XBX A01 series AR glasses from Volkswagen, which accurately entered the young everyday wear market and completed the entry trend product line. Flagship models such as the XREAL 1S and XREAL One Pro continued to be popular in the first half of the year. High-end flagships stabilized basic models and new secondary lines opened up incremental markets. With differentiated hierarchical product layouts and stable spatial interaction capabilities, they accurately covered the public and high-end dual-tier users, and the barriers to segmentation tracks continued to be consolidated.

VITURE ranked fifth in the industry with 5.8% share in the first half of the year, a high-end immersive AR segment with accurate card slots. The brand focuses on high-end video experience and extreme immersion. The brand officially launched the annual high-end flagship VITURE Beast XR smart glasses at the “520 · Seeing Heart” press conference on May 21. The new product is equipped with a large 58° field of view, 1,250nits peak brightness, supports native 3DoF free space interaction, and focuses on a portable giant screen cinema-level immersive experience, further raising the upper limit of the industry's high-end video experience. In the first half of the year, the new Beast flagship model formed a high and low combination with the classic Luma series, improving the high-end product matrix. With its differentiated high-end positioning and high-quality video experience, it formed a stable reputation in the high-end consumer community, complementing the supply of products in the high-end market of the industry and forming a misplaced competitive advantage.

CINNO • xResearch Second Half Market Outlook: The industry enters a large-scale high-quality growth cycle

Looking back at the market performance in the first half of 2026, the domestic consumer-grade AI/AR industry has completely exited the pilot introduction period and has fully entered the high-quality development stage of product maturity, demand release, ecological improvement, and scale expansion. The core competitive logic of the industry has been upgraded from an internal volume of early hardware parameters to a comprehensive experience competition for lightweight wear, long battery life, intelligent AI interaction, spatial computing stability, and scenario practicality.

In the first half of the year, the pace of iteration of new products in the industry peaked during the year. In May, it focused on ushering in the latest trends in leading brands: VITURE Beast flagship, Thunderbird GT series, V4 AI glasses, and XREAL xbx a01 series were released one after another, complementing the product matrix in multiple dimensions from high-end immersion, everyday AI shooting, and youth and lightness. In the second half of the year, leading brands such as Thunderbird, XREAL, Lucky, Qianwen, and VITURE will continue to iterate on new products. Underlying space computing, AI image quality optimization, and multi-modal interaction technology will continue to be implemented, adding to the support of the summer and Double Eleven consumer seasons, and major manufacturers such as Huawei continue to expand the supply of products, and the industry market penetration rate will further increase.

CINNO • xResearch predicts that in the second half of 2026, the domestic consumer AI/AR equipment market will continue its rapid growth trend in the first half of the year, and overall sales are expected to continue to rise steadily. The industry will continue to present a development pattern of rapid AR expansion, VR deepening B-side concentration, and accelerated technological iteration. Consumer-grade AR glasses will be further popularized and officially become the next generation of popular smart wearable core terminals, and the industry as a whole has entered a new stage of large-scale and high-quality development.