Australian sales of virtual reality headsets are tipped to surge by 2020, with demand predicted to outstrip supply in 2016 as tech companies like Microsoft, Sony, Samsung and Facebook's Oculus push to hook in early users. 
Early adopters of VR are tipped to be largely gamers, with a new report from technology analyst company Telsyte predicting that 110,000 units will be sold in 2016, with sales increasing to more than 500,000 units in 2020.
The most popular devices are set to be the Sony PlayStation VR, Google Cardboard, Samsung Galaxy VR and Facebook's Oculus Rift. Telsyte's VR and AR (augmented reality) Market Study 2016 surveyed 1000 Australian consumers aged 16 and older, finding that half are aware of VR technology already and about 20 per cent wanted to buy a VR-capable device.
The annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in   February featured big-name consumer tech players making their move on the VR market with new devices. While Samsung said early orders of its new flagship Galaxy S7 smartphone would come with a free Gear VR headset, rival companies were falling over themselves to announce VR devices, which tend to be paired with smartphones. Alcatel announced that its latest phone, the Idol 4, would come encased in a virtual reality headset as part of its packaging. HTC announced pricing and availability for its VR headset, the HTC Vive, and LG announced a VR headset known as the LG 360 VR, to work with its new G5 flagship phone.
Some consumers have dabbled with the relatively cheap Google Cardboard VR headset, whereas one of the most hotly anticipated new devices yet to be released is Microsoft's HoloLens.
HoloLens is augmented reality, meaning wearers will see items, characters or information transposed into the real world around them, rather than be consumed in a new world.
Telsyte said one in two households had a game console - of which about a third had a current-generation model, such as the Sony PlayStation 4.
Managing director Foad Fadaghi said this would translate into particularly strong market growth for VR in 2017 and 2018 as manufacturers increased production and more games and applications emerged that attained "must-have" status.
"The strongest pent-up demand is coming from gamers, who see VR as the next frontier in immersive entertainment," Mr Fadaghi said.