Pet Wearables Are Projected to More Than Triple by 2033, and Vets Are the Tell

A new forecast pegs the global pet wearable market at $11.4 billion by 2033, up from $3.37 billion in 2025, a 16.8% compound growth rate over eight years. Strip the market-research polish and one shift drives the number: the device on the collar is being read by the vet, not the owner. That's what makes the category finally compound.

Pet wearable market forecast hits $11.4B by 2033 at 16.8% CAGR

Research and Markets published the "Pet Wearable Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Technology, Product, Animal Type, Component, Sales Channel, Application, Region, and Growth Forecasts, 2026-2033" on May 26, 2026, distributed via GlobeNewswire.

The headline numbers: $3.37 billion in 2025, $11.40 billion in 2033, 16.8% CAGR. Dogs are the dominant animal segment. Smart collars are the dominant product. GPS, RFID, and sensor-based devices split the technology slice. North America leads regionally; Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region in the forecast.

The featured-company list reads like a snapshot of where the category sits today. Garmin and GoPro represent the consumer-electronics lane. Tractive, FitBark, Link My Pet, PetPace, and Felcana represent the pure-play wearables lane. Mars, Incorporated represents the consumer packaged goods lane through its Wisdom Panel and adjacent activity-tracking efforts. Avid Identification Systems and Datamars represent the microchip and identification incumbents that have been in this category for decades and are now getting cycled back into the "wearable" definition as RFID gets re-bundled.

The report attributes the growth to four drivers: pet humanization, rising disposable incomes, technological advancement in sensors and connectivity, and increased veterinary and insurance integration. It explicitly cites Shelter Animals Count's 2025 report noting 4.2 million U.S. shelter adoptions in 2024 as a demand signal: more pets, more wearables.

What the report does not include: a clean view of attach rates today, average revenue per device, churn rates on subscription-tied trackers, or category leadership by SKU sold. That data sits inside the companies, not in this forecast.

Why the vet-integrated wearable is the version that matters

The pet wearable category has been pitched as a billion-dollar opportunity for fifteen years. Whistle launched in 2012. FitBark in 2013. Garmin had pet trackers before the iPhone had a step counter. The market has grown, but not at the rate the early forecasts called for. The reason is straightforward: consumer-grade wearables have to win attention against the rest of an owner's phone. Most lose.

The 16.8% CAGR forecast is interesting because it doesn't depend on consumers loving these devices. It depends on three different forces, only one of which is consumer behavior.

1. The veterinary record is becoming a buyer of pet sensor data. Continuous activity, heart rate, sleep, and temperature data is now usable in clinical practice, and clinical practice means recurring purchase. Once a clinic recommends a wearable for a senior dog with osteoarthritis or a cat with chronic kidney disease, the device gets bought, the data flows into the practice management system, and the device gets replaced when the battery dies. That's a different unit economics than a one-time consumer GPS purchase. PetPace and Felcana have built explicitly around this. Mars Veterinary Health has access to the largest data set in the country to validate it. The forecast assumes this becomes a normal recommendation, not an enthusiast purchase.

2. Insurers are subsidizing the device to reduce claims. Trupanion, Pets Best, and Embrace have all been running pilots tying wearable activity data to wellness discounts or claims fraud prevention. If even one major carrier announces a structured discount-for-data program, the way auto insurers did with telematics in the early 2010s, the device-as-default category opens. The forecast appears to assume at least one carrier moves before 2030.

3. The Apple Watch playbook is in motion. GPS trackers used to compete on price and battery life. Now they compete on health metrics. Garmin's latest dog collar bundles activity, location, and bark detection. Tractive is layering health alerts on top of GPS. The wearable that wins is the one that does both, the same direction Apple, Fitbit, and Garmin took for humans a decade ago. The category is also getting cheaper on a per-unit basis as Bluetooth and cellular silicon costs fall.

The risk to the forecast is the same risk every prior pet-wearable forecast has faced: consumer churn. Pet trackers have historically had high subscription drop-off after year one. Tractive and Whistle both depend on monthly cellular fees. If those fees don't translate to clinical or insurance utility, owners cancel. The 16.8% growth rate is plausible only if the device sticks because the vet or insurer is in the loop.

The other unspoken risk: data privacy and ownership. None of the major U.S. consumer wearable companies have published clear policies on who owns continuous biometric data on a pet, who can access it, and how it gets used in insurance underwriting. That regulatory question is coming. The first state to legislate pet wearable data is the first state where the category gets reset.

What signals move the forecast up or down

Vet-channel pricing: Watch for IDEXX, Covetrus, or Patterson to list a wearable in their veterinary distributor catalogs at a clinic-friendly price. That would make the category an in-clinic purchase, not a Petco endcap purchase, and would shift unit economics meaningfully.

Insurance carrier announcements: A formalized "wearable discount" from Trupanion, Pets Best, or any top-five U.S. pet insurer would re-rate the category by demonstrating revenue beyond device and subscription.

Mars Veterinary Health data plays: Mars owns VCA, Banfield, BluePearl, and Wisdom Panel. The infrastructure to validate wearables clinically and at consumer scale sits inside one corporate parent. If Mars announces a clinically validated wearable program through its hospital network, the category opens an enterprise channel none of the pure-plays can match.

Subscription churn data: Tractive and Whistle don't disclose churn. If either gets acquired or files for IPO in the next 24 months, the S-1 will. That number is the single most important data point in the category and it isn't public yet.

Asia-Pacific category leader: The forecast highlights APAC as the fastest-growing region. The pet-wearable winner in China and Japan will not be a U.S. company. Watch for Xiaomi, Petkit, and Catlink to scale beyond their home markets, particularly into Southeast Asia and India, where pet ownership is growing on a different curve.

Source: Research and Markets via GlobeNewswire