Virtual Reality 2017: Top 100 Influencers, Brands and Publications

2016 was a pivotal year for the virtual reality industry, with almost 100 million VR units shipped worldwide. We analysed the conversation back then in this blog post, and we wanted to revisit the topic to uncover the top influencers, brands and publications driving the online conversations in 2017.

Virtual reality technology holds enormous potential to change the future for a number of fields; from medicine, business and the military, to architecture and manufacturing. As the technology becomes cheaper and more widespread, we can expect to see many more innovative uses for VR in the future. It has the potential to fundamentally change the way in which we communicate and work. The VR industry is experiencing explosive growth with the worldwide market for headsets growing by 25.5% year over year in the second quarter of 2017 according to the IDC. VR headsets account for 98% of the market.

HOT TOPICS IN VIRTUAL REALITY

We analyzed over 5.4M social media posts and blog content from January 2017 to see which associated topics and sub-categories received the most attention in conjunction with the virtual reality online discussion. Here is the word cloud showing the most frequently used keywords:

The most frequently mentioned words spoken about in the context of virtual reality were:

1. AR
2. Oculus
3. AI
4. Hands-On
5. HTC Vive
6. 360-degree
7. Playstation
8. Motion
9. VRWC17
10. AWE2017
11. Daydream
12. IoT
13. Mixed Reality
14. CES2017
15. GDC17
16. Rift
17. Experience
18. Arkit
19. 3D
20. IndieDev

MAPPING THE COMMUNITY

Below is a network map showing recent interactions with the number one influencer Rick King. This map was created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM). If you are interested in learning more about identifying, managing and engaging with influencers click here to get in touch!

Onalytica Virtual Reality Top 100 influencers, Brands and Publications Network Map Rick King

Below you can see another network map created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM) showing the number 1 brand Oculus at the centre, and all the virtual reality conversations to and from the influencers in their field. Be sure to click on the map to see it in more detail:

Onalytica Virtual Reality Top 100 influencers, Brands and Publications Network Map Oculus

BRAND AWARENESS AMONG INFLUENCERS

So which brands were driving the most attention among the influencer community? We counted the number of brand mentions by the key virtual reality influencers to create the brand share of voice pie chart below. This tells us which out of the top brands have the biggest share of voice among the top influencers discussing virtual reality between 1st January – 30th September 2017.

The most popular brand mentioned by the top virtual reality influencers was Oculus with a 30% share of voice, illustrating the fact that Oculus is a dominant force in the virtual reality market, with a growing library of existing games and cinematic experiences on top of the financial and technical support of its owner, Facebook. HTC was the 2nd most popular brand mentioned by the top virtual reality influencers with a 22% share of voice. Thanks to a $1.1 billion deal with Google to acquire the majority of HTC’s phone design and engineering team means HTC can now focus more on its Vive VR headsets and reduce its development costs, making it a serious competitor.

Samsung received the 3rd highest number of mentions with a 13% share of voice. Samsung’s Gear VR is the most popular mobile VR headset on the market in terms of sales. The Gear VR device is a lot more affordable when compared to its rivals, with the exception of the Daydream View that costs around the same. Also part of the reason for their popularity is a lot of consumers who purchased the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, received the Gear VR for free. PlayStation received the 4th highest number of mentions with a 12% share of voice. Although it is behind Samsung in global headset sales, it had sold a total of 519,400 units of its VR Headset before the second quarter of 2017, capturing 24.4% of the total market share, according to IDC.

Google was the 5th most popular brand mentioned by the top virtual reality influencers with an 11% share of voice. Google’s new Daydream VR platform is already making big waves in the tech industry. They are working with partners like Qualcomm, HTC and Lenovo to develop Daydream headsets that are completely free of phones, PCs and wires. They also offer VR experiences for web browsing and listening to music. Microsoft were the 6th most popular brand mentioned by the VR influencers with a 5% share of voice. Microsoft has been making a lot of low key noise about VR, AR, and mixed reality recently, and has just announced they’re acquiring AltspaceVR with the aim of “building the world’s preeminent mixed reality community”.

Intel received 3% of all brand mentions among the top VR influencers. Intel’s new system called ‘Portal Ridge’wants to overcome the disadvantages of streaming VR content from a powerful PC to a mobile phone acting as a headset. The system makes use of existing hardware from HTC to combine the benefits of a gaming PC and your mobile. Ubisoft, who build their VR games to leverage multiplayer experiences in order to enhance the social aspect of VR, also received 3% share of voice.

The powerful graphics cards built by NVIDIA ensure that they are in the top 10 VR brands with a 1.6% share of voice. They were followed lastly by Zeiss with 0.4% of all brand mentions. Zeiss develop diverse optics and optoelectronics technologies, and they recently announced the launch of the VR One Connect headset.

TOP 100 INFLUENCERS

We looked at all the individuals engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top influencers in virtual reality. Below is the top 50, if you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below.

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Company	Influencer Score
1	@RickKing16	Rick King	Consultant	100
2	@kentbye	Kent Bye VoicesOfVR	The Voices of VR	66.13
3	@John_Westra	John Westra	Vuturus	64.35
4	@markgurman	Mark Gurman	Bloomberg	62.13
5	@tipatat	tipatat	The Venture Reality Fund	58.51
6	@lucasmtny	Lucas Matney	Tech Crunch	56.41
7	@mcuban	Mark Cuban	The Dallas Mavericks	54.66
8	@thedextriarchy	Adi Robertson	The Verge	54.16
9	@hmltn	Ian Hamilton	Upload	48.53
10	@Hero_Kvatch	Jamie Feltham	Upload	47.64
11	@downtohoerth	Eva Hoerth	Tech Researcher	45.1
12	@vr_sam	Sam Watts	make [REAL]	43.24
13	@deantak	Dean Takahashi	VentureBeat	42.18
14	@chetfaliszek	Chet Faliszek	Bossa Studios	41.96
15	@Scobleizer	Robert Scoble: VR/AR	Transformation Group.io	41.53
16	@Sanemavcil	Sanem Avcil #Arkit	Arkit	40.34
17	@Jason_Rubin	Jason Rubin	Oculus	38.69
18	@karissabe	Karissa Bell	Mashable	38.33
19	@evanderburg	Eric Vanderburg	TCDI	38.2
20	@claybavor	Clay Bavor	Google	38.09
21	@tomwarren	Tom Warren	The Verge	35.79
22	@DannyBittman	Danny Bittman	Google	35.27
23	@ryan_a_bell	Ryan A Bell Ai AR VR	Hydro Studios	35.16
24	@Joe_Durbin	Joe Durbin	Dome9Security	34.81
25	@PalmerLuckey	Palmer Luckey	Oculus	34.11
26	@hbarra	Hugo Barra	Facebook	33.27
27	@RoblemVR	Rob Crasco #VR	Cyber Adept	31.7
28	@JoshuaFarkas	Josh Farkas	Cubicle Ninjas	31.69
29	@auradeluxe	Tony Parisi	Unity	31.68
30	@MikeQuindazzi	Mike Quindazzi	PwC	31.48
31	@ID_AA_Carmack	John Carmack	Oculus	30.94
32	@jeremycdalton	Jeremy Dalton	PwC	30.57
33	@NathieVR	Nathie	YouTuber	29.75
34	@SkarredGhost	TonyVT SkarredGhost	SkarredGhost	29.28
35	@JessConditt	Jessica L. Conditt	Engadget	28.63
36	@evankirstel	Evan Kirstel	UCStrategies.com	28.4
37	@David_Jagneaux	David Jagneaux	Upload	28.02
38	@rikardsteiber	Rikard Steiber	HTC	27.85
39	@TheMalia	Malia Probst #VR #AR	VR Scout	27.8
40	@jobjstauffer	Job J Stauffer	Telltale Games	27.27
41	@vihartvihart	Vi Hart	VR Philosopher	26.36
42	@tomemrich	Tom Emrich	Super Ventures	24.24
43	@CharlieFink	Charlie Fink	Forbes Tech	24.24
44	@benz145	Benjamin Lang	Road to VR	23.96
45	@cyceratops	Cy Wise	Owlchemy Labs	23.69
46	@CathyHackl	CathyHackl AWNewYork	VR AR Association	23.25
47	@vr_human	Vlad [VRHuman]	VRHuman	23.21
48	@misslivirose	Liv Erickson	High Fidelity	22.38
49	@Fisher85M	Michael Fisher	Whitcraft Group	21.07
50	@mano1creative	Manuel Clément	Google	20.29

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TOP 100 BRANDS

We also looked at all the brands engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top brands talking about virtual reality. Below is the top 50, if you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the report to get the full top 100 list, and see who are most the influential brands in virtual reality.

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@oculus	Oculus	100
2	@HP	HP	83.77
3	@htcvive	HTC VIVE	59.34
4	@YouTube	YouTube	58.21
5	@PlayStation	PlayStation	44.89
6	@intel	Intel	35.82
7	@googlevr	Google VR	34.89
8	@unity3d	Unity	29.81
9	@Microsoft	Microsoft	27.57
10	@Tribeca	Tribeca	24.82
11	@nvidia	NVIDIA	24
12	@Dell	Dell	23.47
13	@OculusRift	Oculus Rift	21.47
14	@Sony	Sony	20.71
15	@Ubisoft	Ubisoft	20.58
16	@htc	HTC	19.98
17	@SamsungMobileUS	Samsung Mobile US	19.86
18	@AltspaceVR	AltspaceVR	18.52
19	@OwlchemyLabs	Owlchemy Labs	18.4
20	@sxsw	SXSW	18.2
21	@tiltbrush	Tilt Brush	17.71
22	@lenovo	Lenovo	17.56
23	@ViewMaster	View-Master	17.13
24	@AMD	AMD	16.81
25	@Viveport	Viveport	15.59
26	@nokia	Nokia	15.56
27	@NVIDIAGeForce	NVIDIA GeForce	15.15
28	@Polygon	Polygon	14.97
29	@Discovery	Discovery	14.43
30	@bethesda	Bethesda	14.16
31	@NokiaVR	Nokia VR	13.38
32	@Survios	Survios	12.7
33	@Qualcomm	Qualcomm	12.6
34	@CCPGames	CCP Games	12.46
35	@cityflyby	CityFlyBy.com	12.25
36	@IDC	IDC	12
37	@vrlosangeles	VRLA	11.93
38	@UnrealEngine	Unreal Engine	11.62
39	@CES	CES	11.41
40	@CloudheadGames	Cloudhead Games	10.82
41	@highfidelityinc	High Fidelity	10.61
42	@HoloLens	Microsoft HoloLens	10.55
43	@PlayStationUK	PlayStation UK	10.27
44	@ARealityEvent	AWE 2017	10.26
45	@VirZOOM	VirZOOM	9.63
46	@Sketchfab	Sketchfab	9.42
47	@IBMWatson	IBM Watson	9.36
48	@jauntvr	Jaunt	8.59
49	@lavalvirtual	Laval Virtual	8.18
50	@PwC	PwC	8.18

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TOP 100 PUBLICATIONS

As part of our new analysis, we also now scan all the publications engaging on social media and on blogs to bring you a list of the top publications talking about virtual reality. Below is the top 50, if you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the report to get the full top 100 list.

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@UploadVR	Upload	100
2	@VRFocus	VRFocus	69.87
3	@TechCrunch	TechCrunch	68.96
4	@Forbes	Forbes	64.63
5	@RtoVR	Road to VR	51.59
6	@VRScout	VRScout	49.09
7	@VentureBeat	VentureBeat	46.91
8	@mashable	Mashable	46.1
9	@engadget	Engadget	44.77
10	@verge	The Verge	44.07
11	@WIRED	WIRED	39.94
12	@IGN	IGN	36.42
13	@FastCompany	Fast Company	32.87
14	@ForbesTech	Forbes Tech News	30.99
15	@virtrealitytime	VirtualReality Times	30.96
16	@DigitalTrends	Digital Trends	25.16
17	@BBCClick	BBC Click	23.5
18	@motherboard	Motherboard	22.91
19	@CreativeReview	Creative Review	22.39
20	@pcworld	PCWorld	21.87
21	@BBC	BBC	21.49
22	@TheNextWeb	TNW	20.76
23	@gamespot	GameSpot	19.7
24	@pcgamer	PC Gamer	19.61
25	@CNET	CNET	19.57
26	@VICE	VICE	17.73
27	@nextvr	NextVR	16.82
28	@tomshardware	Tom’s Hardware	16.58
29	@Gizmodo	Gizmodo	16.17
30	@OfficialVRology	VR•ology	15.34
31	@techreview	MIT Tech Review	14.8
32	@wareable	Wareable	14.66
33	@ipfconline1	ipfconline	14.2
34	@gamasutra	Gamasutra	13.42
35	@InfinityLeap	Infinityleap	13.17
36	@techradar	TechRadar	12.83
37	@TheGadgetShow	The Gadget Show	12.32
38	@bigpotplant	Epic VR Channel	12.16
39	@TheDrum	The Drum	11.11
40	@ARTEfr	ARTE	11.02
41	@goSpectral	Spectral VR	10.9
42	@futurism	Futurism	10.41
43	@frontlinepbs	FRONTLINE	10.2
44	@medialab	MIT Media Lab	10.09
45	@GamesMaster	GamesMaster	9.94
46	@Techmeme	Techmeme	9.83
47	@virtualtoday	VirtualToday	9.73
48	@DiscoverMag	Discover Magazine	9.55
49	@teamnotey	Notey	9.54
50	@VrIndies	VR INDIES	9.36

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At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Big Data, Augmented Reality, Digital Marketing) be sure to have a gander on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on twitter?

Effective influencer marketing starts with identifying relevant influencers for your brand. Onalytica’s new Discovery platform mines over 200 billion posts a year into a curated database of over 500K global social media influencers, including data from Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn Profile Links + Demographic Data. Our software enables you to identify influencers by topic, demographic or content and includes real-time tracking and measurement reporting to scale your influencer relations. Get a free demo today by clicking the button below!

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Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking is by no means a definitive measurement of influence, as there is no such thing. The individuals, brands and publications listed are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around virtual reality.

The PageRank based methodology we use to extract influencers on a particular topic takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives measured as resonance (engagement). These calculations also take into account a user’s relevance (number of tweets on topic) and reach (number of followers). If you want to learn more, please read our article that outlines influencer identification.