The sales of video game consoles spike every holiday season as shoppers from around the world are eager to buy the latest systems for themselves and their loved ones and take advantage of special discount deals, which are always in ample supply.
This year was special for VR because the holiday search volume for the Quest 2 headset exceeded traditional game consoles, including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch, according to data gathered by Road to VR and provided by Google.
The great interest in the Meta Quest 2 headset is confirmed by the most recent Steam Hardware Survey, which shows that the Quest 2 userbase grew by 3.3% since the last survey, reaching 39.62%. To put the number into perspective, we should point out that past Steam Hardware Surveys recorded gains between 1% and 2%.
The steep growth of the Quest 2 userbase also means that all Meta VR headsets combined account for over 60% of total VR headset usage on Steam despite the fact that the Quest 2 is the only Meta headset that’s gaining more users than it’s losing.
The second most popular VR headset on Stream, the Valve Index HMD, has lost over 1% of its users since early December. The only other headset that has gained more than 0.10% new users besides the Quest 2 is the HTC Vive Cosmos, a PCVR headset that was released in 2019.
With several major VR headset releases expected to take place in 2022, including the highly anticipated Apple VR headset, it seems that virtual reality is steadily approaching mainstream status and becoming a highly sought-after form of entertainment.
Of course, we shouldn’t forget that the availability of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 has been abysmal throughout 2021, so it’s possible that a number of entertainment-seeking consumers have turned their attention to virtual reality headsets instead, with the Meta Quest 2 being an easy choice for beginners on a budget.
