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

Emerging builders, startups, and enterprises recognized at the world's leading XR conference

LONG BEACH, Calif., May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2026 prepares to open in Long Beach, California, the global XR community will gather to celebrate a landmark year of innovation across XR, spatial computing, AI, and robotics.

Now in its 17th year, AWE USA 2026 highlights the 2026 Auggie Awards finalists, a curated selection of 20 promising XR builders, 10 startups competing for the "Startup to Watch" Auggie Award, new XR games from gaming studios and location-based entertainment creators, and more than 300 enterprises and government organizations scaling XR deployments.

Guided by this year's theme, "I, Spatial: Humans Empowered by Spatial AI," AWE continues to showcase the importance of AI and XR convergence to maintain human agency when AI agents proliferate the world.

2026 Auggie Awards Finalists Announced

The finalists for the 2026 Auggie Awards have officially been revealed, showcasing the boldest ideas and significant breakthroughs that are driving XR advancements. This year's program received over 330 entries, reflecting an industry that continues to shift toward more practical, human-centered innovation.

Across the submissions, a few clear patterns stand out: AI has become a core layer in spatial experiences, AR glasses continue to lead the headworn category, location-based entertainment (LBE) is seeing rapid growth within VR, and impact-driven XR solutions reached record levels of participation.

Since 2010, the Auggies have celebrated groundbreaking technology, compelling content, and real-world impact. Finalists were selected through a combination of public voting and expert review, and now advance to the final judging round led by AWE's esteemed advisory panel.

This year's awards cover 18 categories, highlighting the top global innovations in XR. Finalists are showcased in the Auggie Awards Gallery, with winners announced live on June 17 during the Auggie Awards ceremony, held on AWE's Main Stage. Each winner will receive the prestigious Auggie Award Trophy, custom-designed by artist Sigal Arad Inbar, and gain international recognition among XR leaders, investors, and media.

Congratulations to all 2026 finalists, and thank you to the global XR community for another record-breaking year of submissions and support.

Finalists for each category are as follows:

Best Art or Film:
Reclaiming Dreams
BurnerSphere — Big Rock Creative
La Pandora's Box — Nadeem Majdalany
Henry VIII in Warwick: The Lost Tudor Heart — Keeley Turner
D-Day: The Camera Soldier — TARGO

Best Campaign:
Pringles World Inverted — CamOn
How to Train Your Dragon: Bring the Legend to Life — Zappar
Toyota - FanPort Mixed Reality — Draw & Code
The Last Resort - AR Game — Scholastic & Petricore
Overflow — Meow Wolf + Refract Studio

Best Consumer App:
"Local Lens AR" — STYLY, TOKYU LAND SC MANAGEMENT Co., Ltd.
Stencil VR
Trip the Light: Let's Dance — Dark Arts Software
Google Maps XR
FunFitLand — DelightScape Interactives Inc.
Hide n' Seek — DB Creations

Best Content Creation Tool:
OXR — Mixel Studio, Inc.
Mattercraft: The Next Generation of 3D Web Tooling — Zappar
Strata
MetaNeural Immersive Simulation Platform
Arrival.Space

Best Content Creator(s):
OtterWorldly
Cause + Christi XR Design
Notkausa
Naysy
AtomBombBody
Gabriele Romagnoli
ThrillSeeker

Best Developer Tool:
Mattercraft: The Next Generation of 3D Web Tooling — Zappar
OSS for Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) — STYLY Open Source Project for LBE
GroKit Core — 3lbXR
VIROO Studio — VIRTUALWARE
MultiSet AI
Lens Studio — Specs Inc.

Best Education & Training Solution:
VR Immersive Experience of Benshan Fifth Tunnel in Taiwan — National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Dept. of Multimedia Design
Chemical Incident & Terror Response in XR — National Institute of Chemical Safety
NucleusXR
Dance Guru — Hypercreative Co., Ltd
Cabinet of Curiosities — Mechanical Whispers
Dementia & Empathy Training — Rendever

Best Enterprise Solution:
Fyware Hub Real-Time XR Training Supervision
VIROO the XR infrastructure platform — Virtualware
MockThru (Multi-User Mixed Reality Prototyping) — Southwest Airlines
echo3D
FabStation — Eterio Realities Inc.
SPIDER - AI-Powered Spatial Intelligence for Transforming Industrial Operations — GRID RASTER INC.

Best Game or Toy:
VRacer Hoverbike — VertexBreakers / Impact Inked
Iron Rebellion — Black Beach Studio
Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked — Resolution Games
Ship Happens VR
Abyss: Vault — Hololabs Studio Inc
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow — Vertigo Games
Crystal Commanders — DB Creations

Best Headworn Device:
J9 Eye-Tracking AR Glasses — Jorjin Technologies Inc.
XREAL 1S
PICO/ByteDance
Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform powering Samsung Galaxy XR — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Spectacles — Specs Inc.
Rokid Glasses

Best Healthcare & Wellness Solution:
Real-Time 3D MRI & CT Spatial Rendering — Frame Sixty
ARVIS — Enovis
ACL Rehab in Mixed Reality — University of Miami
FunFitLand — DelightScape Interactives Inc.
Mixed Reality Distraction Therapy Program — Abbott, Rock Paper Reality

Best Indie Creator(s):
Iron Rebellion — Black Beach Studio
The Foremother's Café — Helen Lundström Erwin
New Canvas
VR Escape Rooms — vrCAVE
Hololabs Studio
Year of the Cicadas
Caradise

Best Interaction Product:
Gate — D2C IMG SRC STUDIO / SoVeC
SporTrack — NEWJAK
Be There Without Being There: Humanoid Robot Immersive Telepresence — Carolina Cruz-Neira & Judah Rowe
Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform ecosystem — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Banners & Bastions

Best Location-Based Entertainment:
Reviewbah - Borneo Adventure Hunt — Reviewbah Sdn Bhd
"AnimaLOOK!!" — STYLY, TOKYU LAND CORPORATION
Bakusō Club: Portable LBE Edition — Bakusō Pit Crew
La Magie Opéra — BackLight Studio
Interstellar Arc — Felix & Paul Studios
Sandbox VR

Best Reality Capture (a new category in partnership with Reality Capture Network):
PortalCam — XGRIDS LIMITED
Scaniverse — Niantic Spatial Scaniverse
Cintoo VR Experience
Gracia
Teleport by Varjo

Best Societal Impact:
"AnimaLOOK!!" — STYLY, TOKYU LAND CORPORATION
Ko-Kwel: He Carries a Story — University of Oregon Reality Lab
Totems of Hope: Your Brain on Philanthropy | A Living System in Evolution — Simeone Scaramozzino
Tanit XR — Ines Said
Europa Prime VR — MXT REALITY & TERC
Cooper's Clean Air Quest: Making Invisible Pollution Visible — YORD

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

Most Ethical Product (new category in partnership with the XR Guild):
Zapworks Spaces: Indoor Navigation for Everyone — Zappar
BurnerSphere — Big Rock Creative
SecureMR — PICO/ByteDance
Open Metaverse Browser (OMBI) — Metaverse Standards Forum & RP1
BIEL SMARTGAZE ORA
Halo by Brilliant Labs
View the Auggie Awards Gallery here: https://auggies.awexr.com/gallery/bwGlvylK

21 promising XR builders Unveiling Eye-Opening Projects

This year's Select Builders lineup spotlights emerging XR creators and startups that are transforming spatial computing, AI-powered experiences, immersive storytelling, and smart glasses. The showcase spans from AI-assisted tools and spatial streaming to mixed reality tourism, wearable AR hardware, museum gamification, and cultural experiences.

The selected builders are as follows:

• Remixing Reality: No-code platform for creating and sharing cross-platform AR experiences.
• SmartSight: AI-powered study coach using smart glasses to personalize learning.
• StylMe: Glasses-first AI stylist that digitizes wardrobes and suggests outfits.
• Staxel: AI framework turning public displays into gesture-controlled interactive ads.
• Justin Beaver: VR and AI-powered climate education platform for schools and universities.
• CADABRA AI Inc: AI CAD copilot that turns text prompts into production-ready engineering models.
• ChadoXR: Mixed reality Japanese tea ceremony guided by a virtual yokai host.
• ZOOMR: Mixed reality game that reveals hidden dimensions through camera zoom.
• The Pink Screen VR: Interactive cinema platform blending film, gaming, and XR.
• Yume: Platform that transforms children's drawings into explorable 3D worlds.
• Musetales: AI-driven platform turning museum artifacts into interactive experiences.
• notAnImage: Tabletop holographic device for natural 3D communication without headsets.
• Inkphony: Mixed reality music app that turns everyday objects into instruments.
• Halion Technologies LLC: AR smartglasses focused on comfort and seamless everyday use.
• WanderLens Lab: AI-powered platform creating photorealistic spatial tours and simulations.
• Mixel Studio: XR infrastructure platform for building synchronized spatial experiences.
• Open 4D: Open-source ecosystem for streaming and processing time-varying 4D geometry.
• LangLens: Spatial language learning app for smart glasses and mixed reality.
• Hidden Realities: AR storytelling platform transforming physical spaces into immersive worlds.
• In The Loop: XR knitting app using animations and machine learning to teach techniques.
• OwnXR:  Makes immersive 3D content easier to publish and to share.

Read the full blog post of selected builders: https://www.awexr.com/blog/1379-meet-the-select-builders-at-awe-usa-2026.

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

A diverse lineup of leading gaming studios and location-based entertainment creators are debuting new XR experiences at the AWE Gaming Hub and LBE Zone sponsored by Pico, spanning immersive storytelling, competitive gameplay, fitness, social VR, and interactive worlds:

• Pico
• Dave & Busters
• Mighty Coconut
• Dream Park
• nDreams
• FitXR
• Odders Lab
• 3lb Games
• W4 Games
• Flat2VR Studios
• Dark Arts Software
• XORWIRE
• vrCAVE Inc. / Basement Bunker Labs
• Hyper Creative
• Petricore
• Chameleon Studios
• Photon
• Northeastern University - CAMD
• Hado
• Glo
• Thousand Bit Inc.
• Noetic Realms

10 Startups Competing for the "Startup to Watch" Auggie Award

Ten early-stage companies will compete for the "Startup to Watch" Auggie Award, which celebrates emerging innovators that are leading the next wave of spatial computing, AI, healthcare, and immersive systems:

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

300 Enterprise Organizations Scaling XR+AI Deployments

More than 300 enterprises scaling XR across real-world deployments will share insights about their deployments in the Enterprise VIP program at AWE 2026. Across industries like manufacturing, healthcare, defense, built environment, retail, education, energy and logistics, XR is increasingly being used for training, digital twins, simulation, design, and field operations—reflecting a shift from early adoption into broader, operational use.

Enterprise organizations leading these deployments include: Adidas, Boeing, Disney, Netflix, Toyota, Walmart, The Coca-Cola Company, NASA, JPMorganChase, General Motors, Verizon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon, Blue Origin, Delta Air Lines, Honda Motor Co., Inc., Airbus Helicopters, Deutsche Telekom AG, Rolls-Royce, Warner Bros. Discovery, Siemens Energy, Fidelity Investments, Abbott Laboratories, Axon, CDC, NBA, US Air Force, National Institutes of Health, and many more.

Join the World's Largest XR Community at AWE USA 2026

Media passes are available now to both journalists and creators for AWE 2026—sign up for one 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 community, helping connect, educate, and enable commercial growth and market adoption across the ecosystem. The organization supports the industry through major events in the USA, Europe, and Asia, the prestigious Auggie Awards, global educational programs, and local meetups in over 30 cities.

AWE events feature the latest in personal AI, physical AI, and robotics, alongside the full spatial spectrum from AI smartglasses to Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR). The programming covers Fortune 500 case studies, digital twins, reality capture, XR gaming, location-based entertainment, immersive video, a narrative art festival, and the latest academic research.

The community brings together a diverse audience of top platforms, solution providers, enterprises, and governments. AWE also serves as a central hub for startups, investors, builders, developers, manufacturers, gaming studios, artists, academia, and global media.

The 2026 theme, "I, Spatial – Humans Empowered by Spatial AI," offers a human-centric alternative to giving unchecked responsibility to AI. It serves as a call to action to restore human agency in an AI world and a commitment to building a future that is responsible, ethical, and equitable. AWE remains dedicated to its mission: Advance XR to Advance Humanity. For this year's event AWE expects more than 250 exhibitors, 5,000 attendees and 400 speakers.

Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE AWE (Augmented World Expo)