Augmented World Expo 2026 Reveals Auggie Award Finalists, Rising XR Builders, “Startup to Watch” Nominees, and Enterprise XR Leaders

Rising builders, startups, and enterprises acknowledged on the world’s main XR convention

LONG BEACH, Calif., Could 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2026 prepares to open in Lengthy Seaside, California, the worldwide XR neighborhood will collect to have a good time a landmark yr of innovation throughout XR, spatial computing, AI, and robotics.

Now in its seventeenth yr, AWE USA 2026 highlights the 2026 Auggie Awards finalists, a curated collection of 20 promising XR builders, 10 startups competing for the “Startup to Watch” Auggie Award, new XR video games from gaming studios and location-based leisure creators, and greater than 300 enterprises and authorities organizations scaling XR deployments.

Guided by this yr’s theme, “I, Spatial: People Empowered by Spatial AI,” AWE continues to showcase the significance of AI and XR convergence to take care of human company when AI brokers proliferate the world.

2026 Auggie Awards Finalists Introduced

The finalists for the 2026 Auggie Awards have formally been revealed, showcasing the boldest concepts and vital breakthroughs which can be driving XR developments. This yr’s program acquired over 330 entries, reflecting an business that continues to shift towards extra sensible, human-centered innovation.

Throughout the submissions, a number of clear patterns stand out: AI has grow to be a core layer in spatial experiences, AR glasses proceed to steer the headworn class, location-based leisure (LBE) is seeing speedy progress inside VR, and impact-driven XR options reached file ranges of participation.

Since 2010, the Auggies have celebrated groundbreaking know-how, compelling content material, and real-world influence. Finalists had been chosen by means of a mixture of public voting and knowledgeable assessment, and now advance to the ultimate judging spherical led by AWE’s esteemed advisory panel.

This yr’s awards cowl 18 classes, highlighting the highest international improvements in XR. Finalists are showcased within the Auggie Awards Gallery, with winners introduced dwell on June 17 through the Auggie Awards ceremony, held on AWE’s Fundamental Stage. Every winner will obtain the celebrated Auggie Award Trophy, custom-designed by artist Sigal Arad Inbar, and acquire worldwide recognition amongst XR leaders, buyers, and media.

Congratulations to all 2026 finalists, and thanks to the worldwide XR neighborhood for an additional record-breaking yr of submissions and assist.

Finalists for every class are as follows:

Greatest Artwork or Movie:
Reclaiming Goals
BurnerSphere — Large Rock Inventive
La Pandora’s Field — Nadeem Majdalany
Henry VIII in Warwick: The Misplaced Tudor Coronary heart — Keeley Turner
D-Day: The Digital camera Soldier — TARGO

Greatest Marketing campaign:
Pringles World Inverted — CamOn
The best way to Practice Your Dragon: Carry the Legend to Life — Zappar
Toyota – FanPort Blended Actuality — Draw & Code
The Final Resort – AR Recreation — Scholastic & Petricore
Overflow — Meow Wolf + Refract Studio

Greatest Client App:
“Native Lens AR” — STYLY, TOKYU LAND SC MANAGEMENT Co., Ltd.
Stencil VR
Journey the Mild: Let’s Dance — Darkish Arts Software program
Google Maps XR
FunFitLand — DelightScape Interactives Inc.
Cover n’ Search — DB Creations

Greatest Content material Creation Instrument:
OXR — Mixel Studio, Inc.
Mattercraft: The Subsequent Technology of 3D Net Tooling — Zappar
Strata
MetaNeural Immersive Simulation Platform
Arrival.House

Greatest Content material Creator(s):
OtterWorldly
Trigger + Christi XR Design
Notkausa
Naysy
AtomBombBody
Gabriele Romagnoli
ThrillSeeker

Greatest Developer Instrument:
Mattercraft: The Subsequent Technology of 3D Net Tooling — Zappar
OSS for Location-Based mostly Leisure (LBE) — STYLY Open Supply Mission for LBE
GroKit Core — 3lbXR
VIROO Studio — VIRTUALWARE
MultiSet AI
Lens Studio — Specs Inc.

Greatest Schooling & Coaching Resolution:
VR Immersive Expertise of Benshan Fifth Tunnel in Taiwan — Nationwide Taichung College of Science and Expertise, Dept. of Multimedia Design
Chemical Incident & Terror Response in XR — Nationwide Institute of Chemical Security
NucleusXR
Dance Guru — Hypercreative Co., Ltd
Cupboard of Curiosities — Mechanical Whispers
Dementia & Empathy Coaching — Rendever

Greatest Enterprise Resolution:
Fyware Hub Actual-Time XR Coaching Supervision
VIROO the XR infrastructure platform — Virtualware
MockThru (Multi-Person Blended Actuality Prototyping) — Southwest Airways
echo3D
FabStation — Eterio Realities Inc.
SPIDER – AI-Powered Spatial Intelligence for Remodeling Industrial Operations — GRID RASTER INC.

Greatest Recreation or Toy:
VRacer Hoverbike — VertexBreakers / Influence Inked
Iron Insurrection — Black Seaside Studio
Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked — Decision Video games
Ship Occurs VR
Abyss: Vault — Hololabs Studio Inc
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow — Vertigo Video games
Crystal Commanders — DB Creations

Greatest Headworn Machine:
J9 Eye-Monitoring AR Glasses — Jorjin Applied sciences Inc.
XREAL 1S
PICO/ByteDance
Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform powering Samsung Galaxy XR — Qualcomm Applied sciences, Inc.
Spectacles — Specs Inc.
Rokid Glasses

Greatest Healthcare & Wellness Resolution:
Actual-Time 3D MRI & CT Spatial Rendering — Body Sixty
ARVIS — Enovis
ACL Rehab in Blended Actuality — College of Miami
FunFitLand — DelightScape Interactives Inc.
Blended Actuality Distraction Remedy Program — Abbott, Rock Paper Actuality

Greatest Indie Creator(s):
Iron Insurrection — Black Seaside Studio
The Foremother’s Café — Helen Lundström Erwin
New Canvas
VR Escape Rooms — vrCAVE
Hololabs Studio
Yr of the Cicadas
Caradise

Greatest Interplay Product:
Gate — D2C IMG SRC STUDIO / SoVeC
SporTrack — NEWJAK
Be There With out Being There: Humanoid Robotic Immersive Telepresence — Carolina Cruz-Neira & Judah Rowe
Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform ecosystem — Qualcomm Applied sciences, Inc.
Banners & Bastions

Greatest Location-Based mostly Leisure:
Reviewbah – Borneo Journey Hunt — Reviewbah Sdn Bhd
“AnimaLOOK!!” — STYLY, TOKYU LAND CORPORATION
Bakusō Membership: Moveable LBE Version — Bakusō Pit Crew
La Magie Opéra — BackLight Studio
Interstellar Arc — Felix & Paul Studios
Sandbox VR

Greatest Actuality Seize (a brand new class in partnership with Actuality Seize Community):
PortalCam — XGRIDS LIMITED
Scaniverse — Niantic Spatial Scaniverse
Cintoo VR Expertise
Gracia
Teleport by Varjo

Greatest Societal Influence:
“AnimaLOOK!!” — STYLY, TOKYU LAND CORPORATION
Ko-Kwel: He Carries a Story — College of Oregon Actuality Lab
Totems of Hope: Your Mind on Philanthropy | A Residing System in Evolution — Simeone Scaramozzino
Tanit XR — Ines Stated
Europa Prime VR — MXT REALITY & TERC
Cooper’s Clear Air Quest: Making Invisible Air pollution Seen — YORD

Greatest Use of AI:
J9 Eye-Monitoring AR Glasses — Jorjin Applied sciences Inc.
Totems of Hope — Neuroadaptive Spatial System — Simeone Scaramozzino
Drawn Planets — D2C IMG SRC STUDIO / SoVeC
Gracia
Your AI Sidekick: The Twin That Will get You — Carolina Cruz-Neira, Abdul Mannan Mohammed, Martin McCarthy
Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 Platform — Qualcomm Applied sciences, Inc.
XR Vibe Coding with XR Blocks and Gemini — Google

Most Moral Product (new class in partnership with the XR Guild):
Zapworks Areas: Indoor Navigation for Everybody — Zappar
BurnerSphere — Large Rock Inventive
SecureMR — PICO/ByteDance
Open Metaverse Browser (OMBI) — Metaverse Requirements Discussion board & RP1
BIEL SMARTGAZE ORA
Halo by Sensible Labs
View the Auggie Awards Gallery right here: https://auggies.awexr.com/gallery/bwGlvylK

21 promising XR builders Unveiling Eye-Opening Tasks

This yr’s Choose Builders lineup spotlights rising XR creators and startups which can be reworking spatial computing, AI-powered experiences, immersive storytelling, and sensible glasses. The showcase spans from AI-assisted instruments and spatial streaming to blended actuality tourism, wearable AR {hardware}, museum gamification, and cultural experiences.

The chosen builders are as follows:

• Remixing Actuality: No-code platform for creating and sharing cross-platform AR experiences.
• SmartSight: AI-powered research coach utilizing sensible glasses to personalize studying.
• StylMe: Glasses-first AI stylist that digitizes wardrobes and suggests outfits.
• Staxel: AI framework turning public shows into gesture-controlled interactive advertisements.
• Justin Beaver: VR and AI-powered local weather training platform for faculties and universities.
• CADABRA AI Inc: AI CAD copilot that turns textual content prompts into production-ready engineering fashions.
• ChadoXR: Blended actuality Japanese tea ceremony guided by a digital yokai host.
• ZOOMR: Blended actuality sport that reveals hidden dimensions by means of digicam zoom.
• The Pink Display screen VR: Interactive cinema platform mixing movie, gaming, and XR.
• Yume: Platform that transforms kids’s drawings into explorable 3D worlds.
• Musetales: AI-driven platform turning museum artifacts into interactive experiences.
• notAnImage: Tabletop holographic gadget for pure 3D communication with out headsets.
• Inkphony: Blended actuality music app that turns on a regular basis objects into devices.
• Halion Applied sciences LLC: AR smartglasses centered on consolation and seamless on a regular basis use.
• WanderLens Lab: AI-powered platform creating photorealistic spatial excursions and simulations.
• Mixel Studio: XR infrastructure platform for constructing synchronized spatial experiences.
• Open 4D: Open-source ecosystem for streaming and processing time-varying 4D geometry.
• LangLens: Spatial language studying app for sensible glasses and blended actuality.
• Hidden Realities: AR storytelling platform reworking bodily areas into immersive worlds.
• In The Loop: XR knitting app utilizing animations and machine studying to show strategies.
• OwnXR:  Makes immersive 3D content material simpler to publish and to share.

Learn the total weblog publish of chosen builders: https://www.awexr.com/blog/1379-meet-the-select-builders-at-awe-usa-2026.

18 Gaming Studios and Location Based mostly Leisure (LBE) Leaders Launching New Experiences

A various lineup of main gaming studios and location-based leisure creators are debuting new XR experiences on the AWE Gaming Hub and LBE Zone sponsored by Pico, spanning immersive storytelling, aggressive gameplay, health, social VR, and interactive worlds:

• Pico
• Dave & Busters
• Mighty Coconut
• Dream Park
• nDreams
• FitXR
• Odders Lab
• 3lb Video games
• W4 Video games
• Flat2VR Studios
• Darkish Arts Software program
• XORWIRE
• vrCAVE Inc. / Basement Bunker Labs
• Hyper Inventive
• Petricore
• Chameleon Studios
• Photon
• Northeastern College – CAMD
• Hado
• Glo
• Thousand Bit Inc.
• Noetic Realms

10 Startups Competing for the “Startup to Watch” Auggie Award

Ten early-stage corporations will compete for the “Startup to Watch” Auggie Award, which celebrates rising innovators which can be main the following wave of spatial computing, AI, healthcare, and immersive methods:

• MetaNeural Inc.
• BIEL GLASSES
• Drivers of Tomorrow
• CG Expertise Corp
• Provision Surgical
• Farclip
• CognifiSense
• Tynt
• Immergo Labs, Inc.
• AVRwell Inc

300 Enterprise Organizations Scaling XR+AI Deployments

Greater than 300 enterprises scaling XR throughout real-world deployments will share insights about their deployments within the Enterprise VIP program at AWE 2026. Throughout industries like manufacturing, healthcare, protection, constructed atmosphere, retail, training, power and logistics, XR is more and more getting used for coaching, digital twins, simulation, design, and discipline operations—reflecting a shift from early adoption into broader, operational use.

Enterprise organizations main these deployments embody: Adidas, Boeing, Disney, Netflix, Toyota, Walmart, The Coca-Cola Firm, NASA, JPMorganChase, Normal Motors, Verizon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Company, Raytheon, Blue Origin, Delta Air Strains, Honda Motor Co., Inc., Airbus Helicopters, Deutsche Telekom AG, Rolls-Royce, Warner Bros. Discovery, Siemens Power, Constancy Investments, Abbott Laboratories, Axon, CDC, NBA, US Air Drive, Nationwide Institutes of Well being, and plenty of extra.

Be a part of the World’s Largest XR Group at AWE USA 2026

Media passes can be found now to each journalists and creators for AWE 2026—join one right here: https://www.awexr.com/media.

Tickets to AWE 2026 are on sale now: https://events.awexr.com/usa-2026.

About AWE
Since 2010, AWE has been the world’s #1 XR and AI neighborhood, serving to join, educate, and allow industrial progress and market adoption throughout the ecosystem. The group helps the business by means of main occasions within the USA, Europe, and Asia, the celebrated Auggie Awards, international academic applications, and native meetups in over 30 cities.

AWE occasions function the most recent in private AI, bodily AI, and robotics, alongside the total spatial spectrum from AI smartglasses to Augmented Actuality (AR), Blended Actuality (MR), and Digital Actuality (VR). The programming covers Fortune 500 case research, digital twins, actuality seize, XR gaming, location-based leisure, immersive video, a story artwork pageant, and the most recent educational analysis.

The neighborhood brings collectively a various viewers of high platforms, answer suppliers, enterprises, and governments. AWE additionally serves as a central hub for startups, buyers, builders, builders, producers, gaming studios, artists, academia, and international media.

The 2026 theme, “I, Spatial – People Empowered by Spatial AI,” provides a human-centric various to giving unchecked accountability to AI. It serves as a name to motion to revive human company in an AI world and a dedication to constructing a future that’s accountable, moral, and equitable. AWE stays devoted to its mission: Advance XR to Advance Humanity. For this yr’s occasion AWE expects greater than 250 exhibitors, 5,000 attendees and 400 audio system.

Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE AWE (Augmented World Expo)