9 November 2026 Fact check

MP wrong to claim one brand sold over seven million smart glasses in the UK last year

By Leo Benedictus • Science & Technology • 3 mins

What was claimed

More than seven million pairs of one brand of smart glasses were sold in the UK last year.

Our verdict

Incorrect. EssilorLuxottica, which makes Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses, sold over seven million pairs worldwide in 2025. One consumer survey suggests in the UK about 2% of those aged 16 to 75 own or have access to smart glasses, amounting to around a million people.

Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South, told a Westminster Hall debate last week: “It has been reported that more than seven million pairs of one brand [of smart glasses] alone were sold last year in this country.”

That’s not correct. As far as we can tell, far fewer than seven million people in the UK own or have access to smart glasses—let alone bought a pair last year.

Mr Adam’s office has since told us he meant to say “globally”, and it appears he was referring to the eyewear company EssilorLuxottica selling over seven million smart glasses worldwide in 2025.

EssilorLuxottica, which makes the Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses with Meta, said in February that “AI-glasses units sold, including Ray-Ban Meta (launched in September 2023) and Oakley Meta (launched in June 2025), were above seven million in the full year” in 2025. It said “all the regions and brands” contributed, and gave no figures for individual countries. Mr Adam named EssilorLuxottica later in his speech as the company that makes Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

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How many people in the UK have smart glasses?

We couldn’t find any published UK sales figures for smart glasses, or any official statistics on how many people own them. But surveys suggest the number sold last year was far below seven million.

In May 2026, 2% of people aged 16 to 75 in the UK said they owned or had “ready access” to smart glasses more generally, compared with 3% in 2025, according to Deloitte’s Digital Consumer Trends survey. Based on the Office for National Statistics’ latest population estimates, 2% of people in that age group would be about one million people.

A YouGov survey of UK adults in March 2025 found that 3% of respondents “used” smart glasses, which would be about 1.7 million adults, although it wouldn’t necessarily mean that they all owned a pair.

These are survey estimates, so they aren’t precise, and the number of people who have smart glasses isn’t the same as the number sold in one year. But both suggest this would be nowhere near seven million.

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