The latest Steam Hardware Survey shows steady growth for Steam VR — 1 in 50 users now own a VR headset. On another front, Oculus has also been doing pretty well as it looks forward to the future of VR in 2021.
UploadVR reported on the Steam Hardware survey for January 2021. It shows that VR usage has grown 0.43% as compared to the previous survey, making for a total of 2.13% users on Steam owning a VR headset. That's pretty much 1 out of every 50 gamers on the digital distribution platform. UploadVR also notes that most VR manufacturers don't release numbers on how many headsets they've sold, so the Steam Hardware survey is the best indicator of the market's overall health that we have.
1 in 50 users having a VR headset isn't a phenomenal number, but it certainly isn't anything to ignore, either. It's especially surprising considering the hardware shortages for entertainment tech throughout 2020. Unsurprisingly, while the most popular headsets have largely been the cheapest, the pricey Valve Index currently holds third place among the platform's VR users.
Top 10 VR Headsets on Steam
- Oculus Rift S – 23.36% (-2.56%)
- Oculus Quest – 17.40% (+15.48%)
- Valve Index HMD – 15.83% (-0.29%)
- HTC Vive – 14.06% (-2.28%)
- Oculus Rift – 7.97% (-1.35%)
- Oculus Quest 7.67% (-8.82%)
- Windows Mixed Reality – 6.38% (+0.15%)
- HTC Vive Pro – 2.30% (-0.18%)
- HTC Vive Cosmos – 1.12% (-0.06%)
- HTC Vive Elite – 1.05% (+0.14%)
As Steam VR Usage Grows, Oculus' Standalone Headset is 'Swamped' by New Games
The growing success of Steam VR is certainly welcome news for enthusiasts, but it isn't the only good news that was revealed today — Oculus, too, has had some pretty great growth.
More than 35 titles on the Oculus Quest platform have generated revenue in exccess of $1 million as of September 2020. Slightly less than half have exceeded that number, with three titles making more than $5 million, four titles making more than $3 million, and 11 titles making more than $2 million.
Numbers in the following months were even better. A total of 69 titles (nice) made over $1 million in revenue, doubling the September 2020 numbers. That included 6 titles making over $10 million and 10 titles making over $5 million.
"With the surge of interest in the platform, we're seeing many new developers and titles coming to Quest—so many that we were temporarily swamped with new submissions," read a blog post from Oculus VP of Content Mike Verdu. "We’re working on adding resources and changing our processes to accommodate all developers who want to launch games on Quest."
Oculus killed off its Rift headset as it switched to the "Quest" line of products. The Oculus Quest 2 (and a bunch of games coming to the platform) were revealed in late 2020, signaling a strong commitment by Facebook in the VR space.
VR on Steam requires a computer — often a pretty beefy one at that — but the Oculus Quest is a standalone unit that doesn't require anything other than the headset itself. Between Oculus' influx of developer requests and the increase in Steam VR users, it looks like virtual reality gaming is finally starting to grow beyond being just a niche experience.
Have you tried out a VR headset yet? Which one would you want to buy? Let us know in the comments below!
