According to Rec Room developer Shawn Whiting, Quest 2’s launch may have been much bigger than its predecessor’s.
Whiting provided some Rec Room statistics that give insight into the size of the Quest 2 launch compared to the original Quest. In two tweets, Whiting stated that “Quest 2’s launch is 2.5x the size of Quest 1 launch based on our numbers at Rec Room” and that “the number of Quest 2 concurrent players crossed above Quest 1 concurrent players on [Rec Room’s] charts at 7pm PT yesterday.”
Those are some pretty meaty stats. Of course, the numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt – the success or popularity of any VR app can’t be used as a true indicator of the success of the Quest 2’s launch. However, the increase in Rec Room’s numbers seems to be pretty indicative that the Quest 2 is off to a great start for Facebook even if the same might not be true for some of its customers.
Quest 2's launch is 2.5x the size of Quest 1 launch based on our numbers at Rec Room 📈
— Shawn Whiting (@ShawnRecRoom) October 14, 2020
Likewise, the concurrent players number would indicate a strong uptake of the new headset, but it’s also worth noting that there may be some overlap here. Not all these players are necessarily new players — some Quest 1 owners may have upgraded to a Quest 2 at launch, and immediately started playing Rec Room, hence why the concurrent players might have spiked on the new headset.
Nonetheless, it’s still a big achievement and certainly indicates that, at the very least, Quest 2 has had an equal if not better launch than the original Quest, even if we can’t quantify the exact degree of success from these numbers.
Part of what might be driving these numbers is the new Rec Room content that is only available on Quest 2, which is not available on the original Quest without Link. Isle of Lost Skulls, a co-op activity that wasn’t available on the original Quest due to hardware restraints, was made available on Rec Room for Quest 2 at launch, and the battle royale mode Rec Royale is also coming at a later date.
