Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a display assembly with dynamic brightness compensation. The display assembly includes a display element, a controller, and a backlight device. The controller obtains gaze information for a user's eye, generates emission instructions based at least in part on the gaze information, and dynamically assigns at least a portion of a plurality of light sources in the backlight device to a plurality of regions based at least in part on the gaze information. The light sources emit light through the display element, and the display element spatially modulates the light received from the backlight device to generate image light. Each subset of the light sources dynamically assigned to a respective region emits a portion of the light having brightness adjusted by a respective adjustment value in accordance with the emission instructions.