Creative Industries Expo Debuts XR & Immersive Demos

Creative Industries Expo Debuts XR Showcase and Immersive Demos, Projecting 32 % Sector Growth Through 2027

SEOUL, South Korea – 24 November 2025 – The first-ever Creative Industries Expo opened today with a dedicated XR Showcase that pairs 18 never-before-seen immersive works with rapid-fire demo floors, underscoring the industry’s fastest-growing segment. Government and private forecasts presented on-site value the global XR-for-creatives market at US $18.4 billion in 2025 and predict a 32 % compound annual growth rate through 2027, outpacing both filmed entertainment and traditional gaming.

Analysts attribute the surge to plummeting headset costs—down 41 % since 2022—and to widening enterprise use-cases that now generate 44 % of sector revenue. “XR has moved from novelty tool to profit centre,” said Jae-hyun Lee, commissioner of Seoul’s Creative Industries Bureau, citing a September 2025 city-commissioned study that links each XR showcase dollar to US $2.30 in adjacent tourism and retail spending.

The same report shows South Korea’s creative-technology exports climbing 19 % year-on-year, propelled by K-pop virtual concerts and location-based VR attractions now franchised across Asia.

The Expo’s XR Showcase occupies 9,200 m² of COEX Hall D and is split into four zones: Story Worlds (cinematic VR), Play Grounds (multi-user gaming), Haptic Lab (full-body feedback), and Enterprise Row (volumetric capture, broadcast mixed-reality and training sims). More than 60 % of the experiences run on open-standard WebXR, allowing attendees to stream content instantly to phones or laptops without proprietary apps—an accessibility breakthrough highlighted in.

“Creators no longer ask ‘Should we use XR?’ but ‘Which XR pipeline ships fastest?’” said Expo co-founder and CEO Mia Johansson during the opening press conference. “Our showcase is built around friction-free deployment so studios, labels and even indie designers can green-light projects Monday morning.” Johansson revealed that every exhibiting team pre-registered its tech stack in a match-making portal visited by 2,100 qualified buyers during the 60-day run-up—double the organisers’ original target.

Market data released alongside the show supports Johansson’s optimism. London-based consultancy Omdia projects 180 million XR-ready devices in consumer hands by late 2026, while the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions logged a record 43,840 registrants at its recent IAAPA Expo, many scouting XR suppliers for 2026 ride overlays.

“The content order book is real,” Johansson added. “We’ve already fielded bids totalling US $290 million for location-based and streaming XR productions, and we’re only on day one.”

About Creative Industries Expo

Launched in 2025, the Creative Industries Expo is a global marketplace where film, gaming, music, publishing and themed-entertainment executives source next-generation production tools. The inaugural edition runs 24–27 November at COEX, Seoul, hosting 220 exhibitors, 400 buyers and a two-day academic summit in partnership with KAIST and the Seoul Metropolitan Government.