Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, of which EssilorLuxottica sold more than 7 million units in 2025
Image: Meta

Smart glasses are no longer a niche experiment for the world’s largest eyewear company. EssilorLuxottica, which makes the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta lines with Meta, said on Wednesday that it sold more than 7 million AI glasses in 2025, more than three times the number it sold the year before.

The figure came with the company’s full year 2025 results, which showed revenue of €28.5 billion, up 11.2% at constant exchange rates. That is the first time the group has reported double digit annual sales growth since Essilor and Luxottica merged, and the company credited smart glasses as a major driver, particularly in the second half of the year.

The numbers

EssilorLuxottica said all of its regions and smart glasses brands contributed to the 2025 total. Fourth quarter revenue rose 18.4% at constant exchange rates, a sharp acceleration from earlier in the year. North America, the largest market for Meta’s glasses, grew 11.6% for the full year and 23.8% in the fourth quarter.

A year ago, the company said it had sold 2 million Ray-Ban Meta glasses in total since the second generation launched in late 2023. Adding last year’s sales, UploadVR estimates that around 9 million units have now been sold since that launch. For comparison, UploadVR noted that Valve’s Steam Deck is estimated to have sold around 4 million units, while Meta’s Quest 2 headset sold an estimated 20 million over roughly two and a half years.

The growth came at a cost to profitability. EssilorLuxottica’s adjusted operating margin slipped to 16.0% at constant exchange rates, down 70 basis points from 2024. The company pointed to US import tariffs and to the product mix shift toward AI glasses, which currently earn lower margins than its traditional frames and lenses.

Chairman and chief executive Francesco Milleri and deputy chief executive Paul du Saillant said in a joint statement that the company’s success in wearables is helping to drive what they called the AI glasses revolution.

Ray-Ban, Oakley and Display

Meta and EssilorLuxottica now sell several smart glasses products together. The second generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses remain the best known, and the company describes the line as the world’s top selling AI glasses. In June 2025, the partners added Oakley Meta models, starting with the Oakley Meta HSTN and later the sport focused Oakley Meta Vanguard. EssilorLuxottica said the Oakley additions further accelerated growth.

The most ambitious product in the range is Meta Ray-Ban Display, which adds a small screen inside the right lens and is controlled with a neural wristband. It costs $799 and launched in the US last autumn. EssilorLuxottica did not break out sales for individual models, so it is not clear how much Display contributed to the 7 million total.

Production capacity talks

The sales figure gives new weight to reports about how far the partners plan to scale. EssilorLuxottica had previously set a goal of 10 million units of annual production capacity by the end of 2026. Bloomberg has reported that the company is nearing that target.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that Meta and EssilorLuxottica were discussing doubling that capacity to 20 million units a year by the end of 2026, and possibly to more than 30 million if demand holds, citing people familiar with the matter. According to Reuters, which followed the report, no decision had been made. Neither company has confirmed those figures, and EssilorLuxottica did not announce a new capacity target with Wednesday’s results.

Glasses versus headsets

The contrast with Meta’s VR business is hard to miss. Last month, Meta cut around 10% of its Reality Labs division, closed three VR game studios and said it was “shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables.” Quest headset sales fell in 2025 compared with the previous year through at least the first three quarters, according to industry data cited by UploadVR, while glasses sales tripled.

Smart glasses also have a structural advantage that headsets lack: distribution. EssilorLuxottica owns brands that people already buy, and it operates almost 18,000 retail stores worldwide, according to UploadVR. That gives Meta’s glasses a presence in optical shops, sunglass stores and prescription channels that no VR headset has ever had.

The current generation of these glasses is not augmented reality in the full sense. Most models have no display at all and rely on cameras, speakers and Meta’s AI assistant. But they are getting people used to wearing a computer on their face every day, and that is the habit the industry needs before more capable AR glasses can reach a mass audience.

What comes next

Competition is building. Google and Samsung are preparing Android XR glasses with eyewear partners, Snap plans to launch consumer Specs this year through its new Specs Inc. subsidiary, and Apple is widely reported to be working on glasses of its own.

For now, Meta and EssilorLuxottica have the lead by a wide margin. The open question is whether the partners can keep growing at this pace while protecting margins, and whether the reported capacity expansion turns into a firm commitment. If it does, 2026 could be the year smart glasses sales move from millions into the tens of millions.

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