The Oculus Rift’s lead over the HTC Vive family of VR headsets in Steam’s monthly hardware survey is now the smallest it’s been in some time.
The recent introduction of HTC’s enhanced Vive Pro headset to the survey has proved troubling for Rift’s perceived majority market share. Last month we reported that the Vive and Vive Pro added together meant that there was just a 1.42% difference between the competing VR companies. This month, though, that gap has shrunk nearly an entire percent to just 0.62%. One more drop like that and Vive’s back in the lead.
Both Vive and Vive Pro both saw marginal growth this month whereas Rift surrendered more of its share to HTC and other companies. Windows VR headsets and even the Oculus Rift DK2 (yes really) all grew ever so slightly as well. It’s interesting to see that the former hasn’t grown too much with last month’s introduction of the Samsung Odyssey+.
Of course, November brought with it Black Friday and thus a slew of deals on VR headsets. The Rift went down to the cheapest price we’ve yet seen it at and Vive slashed $100 off of the Pro headset (or $200 on the starter kit bundle).
As always, we must remind you that Steam’s Hardware Survey isn’t a definitive means of tracking the actual sales of VR headsets in relation to others. It’s an optional survey that requires users to have their hardware plugged in when it does its scan, so it can’t account for all of the VR devices out there.
Still, it’s interesting to see HTC regaining ground as we move into 2019. How will December shift the scales?
