407271

Sony’s PSVR Nearly Quadrupled Vive Sales in Q1 2017 According to Superdata

by Charles Singletary • May 10th, 2017

Some of the most common questions asked by people interested in the VR industry are: What headset is selling the most? What content gets downloaded? And is it worth it for me to buy now?

Very rarely do we get a completely candid look into the exact sale and download numbers, typically having to collect scatterings of information to create an educated estimate. There are companies that are dedicated to these types of estimates, but even they should be taken with a grain of salt. Understanding that, the data they accumulate can paint an interesting picture and Superdata Research‘s newly released information paints a telling picture: the PlayStation VR (PSVR) and Samsung Gear outsold the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive by a large margin in Q1 of 2017.

Reported on Venturebeat, the new info from Superdata gave estimates for Q1 2017 sale numbers of five VR headsets and the numbers went as follows:

  • Gear VR: 782,000
  • PlayStation VR: 375,000
  • Google Daydream: 170,000
  • HTC Vive: 95,000
  • Oculus Rift: 64,000

With a little bit of math, we can tell that the PSVR actually sold almost 4x as many units in the first quarter of 2017 as the HTC Vive. Moreover, the Vive is outpacing the Rift and Gear VR is outpacing them all by quite a large margin.

Gear VR leading the charge is no surprise considering the ease of adoption with a significantly lower price than Vive and Rift and the dependence on the largely available smartphone. PSVR coming in second place highlights another aspect of accessibility since that headset piggybacks on the PS4, which already has a massive install base estimated to be nearly 60 million worldwide. Purchasing or upgrading a capable gaming PC is an expensive endeavor for the average consumer and, in the eyes of that consumer, the value of the higher-end tethered units isn’t enough for them to dig into their piggy banks.

Ultimately, not much of this is surprising. The Vive and Rift will continue to charge forward with ways to improve their definitive VR experiences while finding ways to lower the price and mobile VR will attempt to find ways to counteract their limited power and resolution to provide a stout virtual experience that’s widely accessible. It’s only a matter of time before a headset lands right in the sweet spot.

Tagged with:

  • Mane Vr

    this is great news I hope this keeps up

  • Fab Z

    Rather than hardware sales, I’d love to see more data on software sales. I think that the $ value of software sales would be a better measure of the success of each platform than simple hardware sales (how many Gear VR and Daydream units are given away for free as part of a Smartphone purchase?).
    On that measure I would expect a very different list. If I had to guess I would expect PSVR to be on top closely followed by Vive and OR. GearVR and Daydream being way behind…

    • Chris J Williams

      With psvr you can use it as a personal tv to watch movies regular and 3d and play games in VR and normal so anyone who wants it to play any of there old games they can and it also works in cinematic mode on Xbox and with some software it will also work on PC. I use it all the time and I have no TV with my PS4 pro anymore.

      • CURTROCK

        @Chris: I was hoping that the PSVR would be good enough to negate the need of a TV entirely. Glad to hear you & others are doing just that, however I hear that the resolution of the screen still leaves a little something to be desired.

        • Fab Z

          To my eyes it seems somewhere between a 720p and a 1080p screen seen from up close. It’s really quite good to have the large screen size options and while I don’t think I’d want to watch an entire movie with it (because I have better alternatives), it is my preferred method for playing regular PS4 games and watching the odd Youtube between games. Also I must point out the huge benefits of the surround sound processing that PSVR brings to the table (for all content that supports surround). It is incredibly accurate and with a good set of headphones it blows most surround systems out of the water. By the way a seldom mentioned feature is that with PSVR there is no need for a gaming headset (good headphones generally have better sound quality) because PSVR has a great quality microphone built in to it.

        • Chris J Williams

          Its pretty good for the first mass marketed vr from Sony that’s affordable and you can do things besides just play games like watch the 3d movies and watch streaming shows and movies and we’ll games. It’s not gonna be Sony’s last attempt at vr and this was the first vr and they didn’t know it would even sale like it did so now they will ramp up on the next version I bet ya. It will be PS5 with a beefy vr unit with the console extra beefy. Everything they learned from the first will be extra better on the next better controls and a better way to track everything and they done patented new tracking options so it’s coming. One day

  • And some people still think VR is dying a death and is just a fad. 99% of those people clearly haven’t touched a proper VR device.

  • daveinpublic

    Good summary at the end.

    I’m really impressed with those PSVR numbers. I think VR has finally arrived. Wait until Xbox releases a VR headset, then the VR wars will really heat up, with lot’s of content coming to every platform.

  • Toby Zuijdveld

    After their 2 million PSVR unit bungle, SuperData is the last company on Earth anybody should be listening to for estimations.

  • Quotemequoteyou

    What is more crazy, if these numbers are some what accurate, is that the vive is still outselling oculus.