Metaverse in healthcare to top $80 billion by 2030

The Business Research Company says the metaverse in healthcare market will surpass $80 billion by 2030, growing at a 35% annual pace. Software is expected to lead the category, while North America and the U.S. remain the biggest growth centers.

Why it matters: - The metaverse in healthcare is moving from experimentation toward broader use in virtual care, medical training, remote monitoring, and treatment planning. - The market is projected to clear $80 billion by 2030, making it a sizable slice of both the broader metaverse economy and healthcare technology spending. - Software is expected to account for 71% of the market in 2030, or about $56 billion, signaling where most of the value is likely to sit.

What happened: - The Business Research Company released its Metaverse in Healthcare Global Market Report 2026 – Market Size, Trends, And Forecast 2026-2035. - The report puts the market on a 35% compound annual growth rate through 2030. - Microsoft led global metaverse-in-healthcare sales in 2025 with a 4% share, according to the report. - Nvidia and Siemens Healthineers followed at 3% each. - GE Healthcare, Meta Platforms and Koninklijke Philips each held 2%. - Medtronic, Brainlab and Magic Leap each had 1%. - Augmedics held 0.1%.

The details: - The report says the top 10 companies accounted for just 19% of total revenue in 2025, showing a fragmented market. - Barriers to entry include healthcare data privacy rules, interoperability challenges, regulatory compliance and the need for secure immersive systems. - North America is forecast to reach $34 billion in 2030, up from $8 billion in 2025. - The U.S. alone is projected to reach $31 billion in 2030, up from $7 billion in 2025. - Software growth is being driven by immersive healthcare apps, virtual ecosystems, AI-driven simulations, cloud collaboration tools, blockchain-based identity and spatial computing. - The market also includes augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and mixed reality across devices such as VR headsets, AR devices and mixed reality platforms. - Key end uses include medical training, diagnosis, treatment, operating room design, surgical training and remote monitoring. - The software and hardware segments together are projected to add more than $62 billion by 2030, including $44 billion from software and $18 billion from hardware. - The report identifies mixed reality in minimally invasive surgery, metaverse-enabled telemedicine and digital twins as the three main growth drivers. - Mixed reality-assisted surgery is expected to add 2.5% annual growth. - Telemedicine applications are expected to add about 2.3% annual growth. - Digital twins are projected to add about 2.1% annual growth. - In March 2024, Plexus Metaverse Experience Center launched a VR platform in Gujarat, India, aimed at patient education, emotional wellbeing and care interactions.

Between the lines: - The market is still early enough that no single vendor dominates, but the leading players are building on cloud, AI and mixed-reality platforms to lock in enterprise customers. - Healthcare use cases appear to be shifting from novelty to workflow tools, especially where immersive visuals, remote collaboration and simulation can improve outcomes or cut costs. - The strongest demand is likely to come from systems that can scale across training, telehealth and digital twins rather than single-purpose consumer-style experiences.

What's next: - The report expects North America to remain the dominant region through 2030, supported by reimbursement, innovation ecosystems and provider-tech partnerships. - U.S. growth is likely to be driven by immersive platform commercialization, digital twins for precision medicine, extended reality for remote consultations and rapid adoption of spatial computing. - Market players are expected to keep investing in virtual healthcare platforms, AI personalization and extended reality tools as competition intensifies. - The Business Research Company says future report updates will include market attractiveness scoring, TAM analysis, company scoring matrices, dashboards and hotspot infographics.

The bottom line: - Metaverse healthcare is shaping up as a fast-growing but fragmented market, with software, clinical training and remote care likely to capture most of the near-term value.