Way back on September 30, 2025, Ray-Ban launched the Meta Ray-Ban Display, a far fancier pair of augmented reality smart glasses than the Ray-Ban Metas already on the market. They’re $800 and packed with lots of new features that even the Oakley Meta HSTN doesn’t have.
For those in the US, it’s been a mixed bag. Meta’s gradual launch has made them hard to get, and those outside the US had to wait patiently for Meta to bring them to their markets. Well, Meta slipped in an unpleasant update into their CES news on Tuesday, January 6. The international rollout has been paused due to success. Yeah, you read that right.
Are the Meta Ray-bans… too popular?
Unique to the Display is a “Meta Neural Band” you wear on your wrist. According to Meta, “the band interprets your muscle activity so you can control your experiences in a more intuitive way.”
“Meta Ray-Ban Display is a first-of-its-kind product with extremely limited inventory,” starts out Meta’s short blog entry. “Since launching last fall, we’ve seen an overwhelming amount of interest, and as a result, product waitlists now extend well into 2026.
“Because of this unprecedented demand and limited inventory, we’ve decided to pause our planned international expansion to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada, which was originally scheduled for early 2026. We’ll continue to focus on fulfilling orders in the US while we re-evaluate our approach to international availability.”
For those of you in the US, they haven’t gotten any easier to get a hold of. You still have to buy them in a real-life store, not online. How badly do you want one? It’s a bummer for those who don’t live in a large city with a participating Best Buy, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, or Ray-Ban store where they can schedule a demo.
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