Quest 3 is now used on Steam more than Valve Index, and we have the first sign of how many people are using PlayStation VR2 on PC.
This data comes from the Steam Hardware & Software Survey, which is offered to a random sample of Steam’s user base each month. If you accept, it uploads a list of your PC specs and peripherals to Valve, as well as any headset used on SteamVR in the past month.
While Quest 3 is a standalone headset, it can also act as a PC VR headset via USB cable with the built-in Quest Link feature, or wirelessly via Wi-Fi with the built-in Air Link, Valve's official Steam Link app for Quest, or Guy Godin's $20 Virtual Desktop.
Quest 3 launched in October 2023. By November's data it was already the 5th most used headset on Steam, in December it surpassed the HTC Vive to become the 4th, and in January it surpassed Oculus Rift S to become the 3rd. The usage growth velocity of Quest 3 on Steam slowed down significantly from February, but still continued to progress.
As of August 2024, Quest 3 is now the headset of choice for 17% of SteamVR users, and Meta and Oculus headsets now have a usage share of over 67%, around two-thirds.
Index Has Had A Long Life, But Is Now On The Decline
Valve Index is over five years old, yet is still sold at $1000 for the full kit. That it's still the third most used headset on Steam despite its low resolution compared to modern headsets is remarkable. This level of retention is a testament to both the quality of the hardware and to Valve's brand loyalty.
Oculus Rift S launched within a month of Index back in mid-2019 at less than half the price and had significantly higher usage on SteamVR for the first few years. But by late 2021 Index had surpassed it and today has around double the usage. Many Rift S owners likely upgraded to Quest 2 or Quest 3, while some others may have stopped using VR altogether.
Index owners on the other hand mostly held out, with many likely waiting for a new headset from Valve or a spiritual successor from another company that supports their SteamVR base stations. Absent either though, some appear to now be finally upgrading - to Meta's Quest 3.
Index usage peaked at around 21% of SteamVR users just before Quest 3 launched, yet is now used by around 15%. In that same time the overall percentage of Steam users with a VR headset only slightly increased, yet Quest 3 has jumped to 17%. It's clear that many of these Quest 3 users are upgrading, not new PC VR users, and Index is one of the headsets they're upgrading from.
For half the price, Quest 3 offers sharper pancake lenses, twice the number of pixels, and built-in Wi-Fi 6E and upper-body tracking. Index has much higher quality built-in audio thanks to its off-ear BMRs, but for some owners this won't make up for its outdated lenses and displays.
Some will have also upgraded to Bigscreen Beyond, though far fewer, given Beyond was only used by 0.36% of SteamVR users in August.
Valve has directly confirmed on multiple occasions throughout the years that it's working on a new headset, but hasn't yet formally announced or teased a specific product. With Index's five-year anniversary arriving in less than two months many owners will be hoping to see a tease, at the very least, of what's next. But will they get one, or with Steam Link is Valve now happy to cede the hardware side of VR to Meta and its Horizon OS partners?
In August's data we also see PlayStation VR2 for the first time, due to the launch of the PC adapter and SteamVR driver at the start of the month.
PSVR 2 is a unique OLED device, and is already the headset of choice for 0.35% of SteamVR users, just shy of the 0.36% of Bigscreen Beyond. Given that some owners will have been surveyed before their adapter arrived, we'll keep a close eye on this figure in September's data next month to see the true scale of PlayStation VR2 on PC.
David Heaney
