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PC VR's Growth Has Stagnated—But That Will Change Soon

PC VR's Growth Has Stagnated—But That Will Change Soon

The Steam Hardware Survey results for November 2019 are now available, and most VR headsets have stagnated in overall usage. Only Facebook’s Rift S has seen small growth.

The original Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have contracted slightly, down 0.38% -> 0.36% and 0.34% -> 0.33% of Steam users respectively. This is normal given that these systems are now over three years old, and are being replaced or retired.

Facebook’s Oculus Rift S has seen minor growth, from 0.14% of Steam users to 0.15%. This may be down to the release of AAA titles like Asgard’s Wrath and Stormland. The Rift S is currently on sale for $349 for Black Friday weekend, so this growth may increase in next month’s survey. However, it could be restrained by the fact that Oculus Quest can now act as a PC VR headset too- with the right cable.

HTC’s Vive Cosmos is still at 0.00%, meaning less than 0.01% of Steam users are using this headset. This may be down to the fact that this headset sits in a tough position in the market, neither as affordable as the Rift S or as premium as the Valve Index.

Valve’s Index and Windows MR headsets have stayed the same since last month, at 0.05% and 0.1% of Steam users respectively. However, with the announcement of Valve’s flagship game Half-Life: Alyx this will likely change next month. The game will have optional interactions only available on Index, and WMR is the cheapest way for a PC gamer to jump in.

In fact, we expect the hype around Half-Life: Alyx and the interest in PC VR it has spurred to re-energize PC VR’s growth in general. From late 2018 to summer 2019 PC VR overall grew from roughly 0.75% of Steam users to roughly 1%, but that growth slowed down after the release of the standalone Oculus Quest. As of today’s Hardware Survey, the total figure sits at 1.01% of Steam users.

But with a VR-exclusive new Half-Life game from Valve bundled with Index and Black Friday deals on the Rift S and Samsung Odyssey, we expect PC VR’s growth to continue again soon.

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