Meta AI glasses sales more than tripled in 2025

EssilorLuxottica just reported that sales of its Meta (META) AI glasses more than tripled in 2025, hitting 7 million units.

That is up from a combined 2 million units across 2023 and 2024.

In one year, adoption did not just grow.

It snapped into place.

The total includes models sold under Ray-Ban and Oakley. The latest Ray-Ban Display version, launched in September, added a tiny in-lens screen, gesture controls, and neural input features. It sells for $799. Production may be about to surge again. The companies are discussing plans to double output to at least 20 million units by the end of this year.

That is the beginning of a hardware platform shift.

The disruption behind the news: Smartphones had its 15 years of fame. Glasses are next.

Seven million units at $799 implies roughly $5.6 billion in retail value moving through faces, not pockets.

Even if wholesale capture is far lower, this is no longer an experiment.

Smart glasses have failed before because they looked awkward, cost too much, and did too little.

This time the adoption mechanism is different.

EssilorLuxottica controls distribution in thousands of optical stores worldwide. Ray-Ban gives cultural legitimacy. Meta supplies the AI stack and subsidizes development from its advertising cash machine. That combination collapses the go to market risk that killed earlier attempts.

The cost curve is the key. At $799, these glasses are already cheaper than many flagship smartphones. If production scales toward 20 million units annually, component costs will fall fast. Displays, sensors, and custom silicon all benefit from volume. A 20 to 30 percent price drop over the next two product cycles is realistic. At $599, this stops being a gadget.

Switching costs are low because glasses are replaced every one to two years anyway. The upgrade cycle is built in. That is the Trojan horse. People do not need to add a new device. They just choose a smarter pair.

For Meta, this is about owning the next computing interface before Apple or Google lock it up. Smartphones turned operating systems into trillion dollar control points. AI glasses could do the same for ambient computing. Whoever owns the assistant that lives in your field of view owns search, commerce, and ads in real time. That is a far more intimate surface than a phone screen.

What to watch next

First, watch production capacity.

If Meta and EssilorLuxottica actually push toward 20 million units in 2026, developers will follow. No one builds serious apps for a niche device. They will build for tens of millions.

Second, watch regulation around cameras and biometric inputs.

Neural controls and always on video will trigger backlash. Any restrictions on recording or data use could slow enterprise adoption.

Third, watch Meta stock.

If investors start valuing it as a hardware platform company instead of just an ad business, the vision changes. Hardware revenue at scale is stickier than ad impressions.

Glasses are becoming computers. As Meta AI glasses scale into the tens of millions, they may redefine how people access information and interact with the world. And once that happens, the smartphone is living on borrowed time.

Meta (META) has a Disruption Score of 4. Click here to learn how we calculate the Disruption Score.

Meta is also part of the Disruption Aristocrats, our quarterly list of the world’s top disruptive stocks.