• Loading stock data...
Monday, April 28, 2025

VR Fitness Has to Prove It’s More Than a Video Game

  • Virtual reality could revolutionize the fitness industry.
  • However, it faces hurdles to mass adoption, particularly around associations with video games.
Liteboxer
Liteboxer

Aaron Stanton has worked with many test subjects, but one in particular sticks out in his memory, encapsulating the power and the challenge of VR fitness.

A few days prior, the subjects had come in to establish their peak levels of endurance: They ran on a treadmill wearing a heart rate monitor, oxygen mask, and harness — in case they collapsed from exhaustion — and ran until they had reached their exertion limit.

In the next session, the treadmill was replaced with an active virtual reality game.

This particular subject had reached his limit of physical endurance playing the game, according to his biometrics. Afterward, Stanton asked him what he was going to do for the rest of the day.

“He was like, ‘Well I haven’t gotten in my workout today, so I’m headed to the gym,’” Stanton recalled.

He wasn’t a fitness freak — the VR workout simply didn’t count in his mind. And he wasn’t alone: All of the subjects reached their peak exertion levels and none rated the workout as more than moderately strenuous.

“That’s a blessing and a curse,” Stanton, director of the Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise, told me. VR can make exercise feel fun and breezy. The challenge then becomes convincing people that they actually worked out.

“Our motto is ‘We make working out suck less,’” said Jeff Morin, CEO of Liteboxer, which launched a VR offering in March. I asked him if that phrasing is specifically designed to avoid conflict with the “no pain, no gain” mentality, which he confirmed — then went a step further.

“We avoid using the word ‘fun.’”

That speaks to the peculiar social stigma around VR and fitness: Some of these games are really fun.

Vision Quest

Most VR fitness games or apps can be divided into one of two categories: 

  • Games that require significant physical exertion to score points and complete tasks.
  • Workouts enhanced with immersive environments and gamification that rewards metrics like speed and form.

The first category includes games like “Beat Saber,” in which one smashes flying cubes with lightsabers. In October, “Beat Saber” became the first Oculus Quest game to top $100 million in revenue. 

The latter set includes “Supernatural,” in which a peppy instructor guides you through gamified workouts that have you squat, lunge, and swing your arms as various shapes and objects come at you.

Some game developers seek to straddle the line.

Arnaud Baernhoft, founder of gaming studio Field of Vision and a longtime student and teacher in several disciplines, built what eventually became “Crazy Kung Fu” as a practice tool for himself. 

The gameplay is designed to improve one’s reflexes and basic martial-art skills such as punching, blocking, and ducking — whether or not the player is actively seeking that training.

“You’ve got the gamers who are there for play or challenges, you’ve got the people who are just there for fitness, and then you’ve got those who do martial arts,” said Baernhoft. “I tailor the game to try to fit all of them. The challenge is balancing those three things continuously, to not go too far into one of those areas.”

Within, the production company behind “Supernatural,” was acquired by Meta in December for a reported $400 million in a deal that has attracted FTC scrutiny on antitrust concerns. The move was a clear sign that the Facebook parent was making fitness a major component of its VR play.

“Supernatural” elicited my first Neo-from-the-Matrix “Whoa” — and before the workout even started, as my eyes were telling me that I was not in my living room, but on top of a mountain with gorgeous vistas. On a basic, human level, seeing is believing, and VR can transport you to another land through visual input alone.

The Boxer Pivots

Liteboxer, founded in 2017, started as a Peloton-like connected fitness company selling a boxing wall mount and an associated workout subscription. 

That’s still one of the company’s core offerings, but spurred by Meta’s major investment in the space, its focus is shifting more and more toward VR.

It’s not hard to see why: 

  • The company’s VR paid subscriber count surpassed two years’ worth of hardware-based subscriptions in one month. 
  • And given that Peloton’s stock has fallen 93.5% from its December 2020 peak, it’s not a great time to be the “Peloton of boxing.”

“A piece of hardware has much lower [subscriber] churn,” Morin explained. “But the cost of acquisition is an order of magnitude higher than that of VR. When I look at where to spend $10 million of marketing dollars, it’s going into VR, because that’s going to be my most profitable [return], but also my quickest turnaround time for that money.”

Morin sees the connected fitness market in a pivot-or-perish moment as companies fight over a diminishing segment of the population that can afford — and has space for — an expensive workout machine and a monthly subscription. 

He added that investors he has spoken to in raising Liteboxer’s Series B round have grown skeptical of connected fitness. The company has raised $26 million to date, per Crunchbase, including a $20 million Series A.

“If you don’t have an ace in your sleeve like we do with VR, you’re probably not going to survive,” said Morin. “You gotta either shift or become extinct.”

Realistic Virtues

There are two main factors keeping VR fitness from exploding into a massive industry. One is that more people need to purchase a VR headset — but fortunately for VR developers, Meta, and its $429.6 billion market cap, are on the case. 

  • As of June 6, 14.8 million Oculus Quest 2 headsets have been sold, according to Francisco Jeronimo, an executive at market analyst IDC. 
  • Meta is working on improvements to its hardware with the goal of making the VR experience as crisp and as real as possible.

The second, more difficult challenge involves the enduring associations of video games with laziness, and exercise with pain.

“There’s this stigma of gaming not being serious,” said Morin. “Meanwhile, gaming has passed the movie industry and the TV entertainment industry in terms of total revenues. The gaming demo[graphic] is mainstream, but it’s not considered mainstream.”

Stanton sees unique power in VR’s potential to keep users interested and make games adaptable to a person’s habits and real-time biometrics.

“We’ll get to the point where you’ll get more engagement, playing longer, for less miserable discomfort, with more efficient movements, because the game will coach you through the mechanism of the gameplay,” he said.

The games that unlock that potential stand to make billions.

They might even convince people they’re getting exercise.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Jun 21, 2024; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics majority owner Wyc Grousbeck holds the Larry O’Brien trophy prior to the Boston Celtics championship parade.

The Celtics Succession Plan Remains Murky

The transfer of power to a private-equity group is still unresolved.
Apr 13, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Jake Mangum (28) scores a run against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

The Rays Groundskeepers Are Adjusting to Life Outside the Dome

After nearly three decades in a dome, Tampa groundskeepers were forced outside.

The Former NBA Agent Who Became a Pickleball Deputy Commissioner

Chris Patrick went from representing Jimmy Butler to pickleball deputy commissioner.
Apr 5, 2025; San Antonio, TX, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward Cooper Flagg (2) reacts after a three point basket against the Houston Cougars during the first half in the semifinals of the men's Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome.

Cooper Flagg’s Timing Is Perfect for the NBA and USA Basketball

The projected No. 1 pick just declared for the draft.

Featured Today

Apr 14, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Paige Bueckers is interviewed by ESPN after being selected with the number one overall pick to the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards

ESPN’s WNBA Coverage Mirrors the League’s Stunning Growth

“I don’t think we stand still in our coverage of women’s sports,” says Rowe.
Mar 16, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) celebrates with guard Isaiah Joe (11) after score in the fourth quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum.
April 20, 2025

Unorthodox OKC: The Thunder Redefined Tanking to Become NBA’s Best

A rebuild years in the making has OKC in the driver’s seat.
Mar 13, 2020; Augusta, GA, USA; The front entrance at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Friday morning. The Masters Tournament has been postponed due to coronavirus concerns.
opinion
April 20, 2025

What’s It Like to Play Augusta? A Day on the World’s Most..

Inside a round at the most exclusive club in the world.
Dec 9, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) watches as center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) celebrates after making a three point basket to clinch a win against the Toronto Raptors near the end of the fourth quarter at Scotiabank Arena
April 19, 2025

Same Owner, New Knicks: New York’s Remarkable Rebound

The franchise’s renaissance didn’t happen overnight.
Sponsored

Win. Advance. Repeat: The Professional Fighters League’s Rise to Prominence 

As of 2025, PFL has introduced a World Tournament format, where every fighter must battle through a high-stakes bracket to reach a championship.
Sponsored

How On Location is Redefining the Olympic Winter Games Hospitality Experience

As the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 approaches, On Location—the Official Hospitality Provider—is redefining luxury hospitality.
The 2018 Ragin' Crossfit Games are held at Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette.
March 14, 2025

CrossFit for Sale After Years of Drama and Attrition

The intense fitness workout got popular in the early 2000s.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

This week, Two-time Super Bowl Champion and CBS NFL analyst Logan Ryan joins us to talk the business of sports on our third installment of Portfolio Players.
Sponsored

How On Location is Redefining the Olympic Winter Games Hospitality Experience

As the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 approaches, On Location—the Official Hospitality Provider—is redefining luxury hospitality.
Sponsored

The Surprising Ingredient That Can Improve Your VO2 Max

In the high-stakes world of sports, VO2 max—or maximum oxygen consumption—has emerged as a critical marker of endurance and performance.
Peloton Bike
October 31, 2024

Peloton Earnings Beat Expectations As It Still Loses Subscribers

Peloton tapped Peter Stern, former Ford executive and cofounder of Apple Fitness+, to be its new CEO.
September 4, 2024

Under Armour Sells MapMyFitness Back to Founders 11 Years Later

The founders sold the tracking app to the apparel giant in 2013.