Background: Higher-immersion virtual reality (VR) systems are increasingly deployed across education, clinical care, gaming, and immersive journalism, but the extent, range, and nature of the peer-reviewed evidence linking system immersion to user outcomes has not been systematically mapped. Objective: This scoping review maps the peer-reviewed journal literature comparing higher- to lower-immersion VR conditions, characterising how the evidence is distributed across application domains, outcome constructs, measurement instruments, and study designs, and identifying knowledge gaps. Methods: Following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), we searched five databases and screened 135 full-text reports. Eligibility was restricted to peer-reviewed journal articles (excluding preprints, conference proceedings, book chapters, and theses) reporting an empirical higher- vs. lower-immersion contrast with extractable quantitative outcome data. Data were charted descriptively; no inferential meta-analytic pooling or certainty rating was performed, consistent with scoping review methodology. Results: Forty-six journal articles met the inclusion criteria, of which 45 provided chartable effect-size data spanning 2019–2026. Evidence concentrated in Gaming and Entertainment (k = 16) and Education and Training (k = 14), with smaller bodies in Journalism and Prosocial Communication (k = 8) and Clinical and Rehabilitation (k = 7). Across studies, the standardised mean difference (Hedges’ g) had a median of 0.79 (range −0.98 to 3.79); 41 of 45 studies favoured the higher-immersion condition and 36 did so with confidence intervals excluding zero. Presence and immersion were the most frequently measured constructs (26/45); measurement instruments were heterogeneous. Conclusions: Peer-reviewed evidence consistently points toward higher system immersion enhancing user outcomes, especially presence-related constructs, but is methodologically fragmented, dominated by small between-subjects studies, and sparse in clinical contexts. The map identifies priorities for future confirmatory synthesis.