While the initial development of VR was a little slow and cumbersome in the gaming industry, in the last couple of years it has gained incredible pace and is now revolutionizing gaming.

We’ve seen a major shift from simple consoles and handhelds to 4K capable VR headsets, eyewear, haptic gloves and clothing that have brought an unprecedented level of realism and immersion. The VR gaming industry is poised to generate $22.9 billion by next year, and the upward trend will continue. With that in mind, let’s have a look at the VR trends transforming gaming right now.

VR eSports

With the growth of eSports in the last few years, Oculus is one of the companies pushing for the widespread adoption of VR. This resulted in it adding new VR games to is annual Connect 5 eSports tournament in which players competed in the immensely popular VR titles like Onward, and Spring Vector. HTC has revolutionized the VR gaming genre by launching its Vive VR headset, and it is also now supporting the new VR eSports league created by Virtual Athletics League (VAL). The VAL organizes eSports tournaments around the globe and has claimed that the potential of VR eSports will surpass regular gaming tournaments, with 50% of VR enthusiasts preferring VR eSports compared to 20% for other gamers.

Online VR Casinos

Online VR casinos have already replaced many traditional brick and mortar establishments around the world, with millions of players preferring the wide variety of online versions available. With advanced VR technology, players are treated to exciting experiences and the realism of actual casinos from the comfort of their own home, and access to global tournaments. Medium explains that games like VR poker transport players to a table where they can chat and interact with others, just as they would in real life. VR poker is now very popular and widely available online which has resulted in a surge of players across the globe looking for resources to learn the basics. The online gaming guides on partypoker show the wide variety of poker games, and gives players entry level intros into the basics. The formats covered range from multi-table tournaments to individual cash games. With VR casino games being improved all the time as well as the fanbase getting bigger by the day especially in the United States and China, online VR casino games will see huge growth in the coming years.

4K Ultra HD & HDR VR Headsets

Currently, the highest resolution VR headsets possess is 2560×14400 and 2800×1600, for the Oculus Rift S and Valve Index, respectively. With the introduction of the Acer ConceptD OJO, the headset’s resolution will be 4320×4320, or around 2K per eye. Going a step beyond that, at Connect 5 Oculus also introduced a rendering system that uses a deep neural network to construct pixel detail which could afford 4K per eye HDR in the future. The company explained that this could lead to a 20x reduction in rendered pixels, allowing for faster gaming through less resource use. What does this mean for gamers? It will result in incredible detail and immersion, and never before seen gaming graphics that look better than real life.

Standalone VR Headsets

The rise of the untethered standalone VR headset is a game-changer, particularly with the advent of 5G networks. The Oculus Quest, Facebook’s standalone headset has created a lot of momentum for this new technology and sold out a week after its launch in May. The evolution of the VR headset from tethered to standalone represents a major paradigm shift for the immersive ecosystem. No longer do gamers need to be connected to a PC or laptop. With the increased power and higher specs of standalone headsets we now have a truly mobile platform that can facilitate VR immersion anywhere in the world. Coupled with 5G networks, the potential of standalone VR headsets will be taken to the next level with gamers able to stream high resolution, immersive games like Vader Immortal and Robo Recall from virtually any location.