XR application development in the 21st century: a survey spanning two decades of XR developers, applications, and challenges

This article provides an in-depth analysis of how virtual and augmented reality (XR) application development has evolved since the emergence of affordable XR hardware in the mid-2010s. Based on surveying 158 XR developers about their experiences between 2003 and 2020, and additional interviews conducted in 2024, our study reveals a significant reduction in barriers to entry for creating XR applications. Although many of the technical challenges faced by developers have eased over time, testing-related difficulties remain a major hurdle in XR application development, and possibly have become more pronounced over time. Moreover, despite the availability of XR toolkits, developers still tend to build common features like graphical user interfaces and object manipulation from scratch rather than reusing existing components. In addition to documenting these trends in the post-2015 XR landscape, the article proposes strategies to address ongoing challenges, presents a ranked developer wishlist of XR toolkit features, and suggests ways to further support and empower XR developers.