Spatial Sound Design for Cinematic Virtual Reality—A Bibliometric Analysis

Virtual reality (VR) has widespread application across multiple fields, including education, entertainment, medical, training of soldiers and pilots using virtual simulation. Entertainment is one of the fastest-growing fields, including games, theme parks, virtual tours, live events and films. In entertainment, cinematic virtual reality (cine-VR) is fast emerging as an effective way of immersive storytelling. Spatial sound design is considered pivotal in enhancing the immersive experience of cine-VR, redefining how audiences engage with narratives. Since 2012, there has been a steady increase in interest in cine-VR; however, the scholarship on sound design for cine-VR still needs to be expanded with focused studies. This bibliometric analysis delves into the scholarly landscape to gain insights into spatial sound design research trends in cine-VR. A systematic search of the Web of Science Core Collection database revealed 910 English documents published between 2012 and 2024 (June). Information retrieved through 269 shortlisted articles was analysed using the Web of Science analysis tools, VOSviewer and RStudio. The bibliometric analysis identifies, quantifies, visualises and analyses publication trends, influential authors, key journals, prevalent keywords, co-occurrences of keywords, collaborative networks and global distribution patterns. The United States of America is the most influential country with the most publications, followed by Germany and France. Eight hundred and fifty-two authors affiliated with 352 institutions from 39 countries contributed to 269 shortlisted publications. Stefania Serafin is the most influential author in the field and has the most publications. Aalborg University leads with most publications. The articles from Columbia University received the maximum number of citations. The most used keywords are VR, spatial sound and localisation. Cine-VR is an emerging field, and the study’s findings will be relevant to academia and industry to understand better current research trends and themes in spatial sound design in cine-VR. The findings will guide further explorations in the field.