Counterpoint Research’s Intelligent Eyewear Market Tracker, covering the first six months of 2026, shows a category expanding fast and unevenly. AI glasses shipped 263% more units than a year earlier, and the momentum sits almost entirely in frames without a display.

That tier accounted for 96% of everything shipped, growing 258% year over year and 22% from the 2025 back half. Meta took 94% of it, its own volumes up 260% as Ray-Ban variants multiplied, new countries came online, promotions ran and cheaper Meta-branded models arrived.

Augmented reality displays are still a fraction of the market, though their shipments jumped 449% year over year off a low base. Rokid sits at 41% and Meta at 37% in that narrower contest. Chinese buyers absorbed 45% of the units, which Counterpoint links to the country’s component supply chain.

Costs and perception both pose risks. Components keep getting pricier, and camera privacy worries continue to spread after Meta’s recording-light loophole. Counterpoint expects shipments to keep rising anyway, with more designs built to skip cameras altogether.

Source: Android Authority