AWE USA 2025: Consumer XR Highlights and Headlines

This IDC Market Note reviews and assesses some key consumer-focused takeaways from AWE 2025, which was held in California in June and attracted >5,000 attendees. "Another Axiom's Gorilla Tag and VRChat's VRChat offered great context at AWE that other XR game and app studios should consider emulating. Snap's 'Specs 6,' plus Snap's strategic deal with Niantic Spatial, should start delivering distinctive location-based consumer experiences next year as well. Android XR, meanwhile, is in catch-up mode." - Lewis Ward, research director, XR, Gaming, and Interactive 3D Software