SteamVR July 2022: Every second SteamVR headset is a Quest 2
Meta trumps everything, Pico makes its presence felt, and Valve makes another mistake. Our analysis of the latest SteamVR stats.
Valve’s monthly hardware and software survey covers all VR headsets that were connected to PCs with a Steam installation at least once in the respective month and whose users participate in the survey. Among other things, the statistics show the percentage of SteamVR users in the total Steam user base.
The highest value recorded to date is 2.31 percent (May 2021). In May 2022, this value jumped from 1.89 to 3.24 percent - obviously a mistake because a sudden increase of this magnitude cannot be explained and the percentage was back at 1.87 the following month.
In the July statistics, the number rises again to 4.80 percent. So Valve seems to have an error in the statistics again.
If we assume that Steam had an average of 132 million monthly active users last year, SteamVR should have about 2.5 million users (reference value: 1.87 percent).
Meta Quest 2 cracks the 50 percent mark
The following statistics show the market shares of VR headsets tracked by Steam in May and June 2022. Devices that have less than one percent market share are not listed.
VR users who only use Meta/Oculus platforms and Viveport and do not have Steam installed or do not participate in Steam data collection are not included in the statistics, nor are PSVR players. Meta Quest 1 & 2 users who only use their VR headset in standalone mode are also not included. Accordingly, the SteamVR statistics only reflect a small part of the entire virtual reality market.
| June 2022 | July 2022 | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Quest 2 | 49,02 % | 50,32 % | + 1,30 % |
| Valve Index | 15,57 % | 15,26 % | - 0.31 % |
| Oculus Rift S | 10,60 % | 9,88 % | - 0,72 % |
| HTC Vive | 6,53 % | 6,19 % | - 0,34 % |
| Windows Mixed Reality | 4,60 % | 4,44 % | - 0,17 % |
| Meta Quest | 3,49 % | 3,54 % | + 0,04 % |
| Oculus Rift | 3,57 % | 3,42 % | - 0,15 % |
| HTC Vive Pro | 1,67 % | 1,60 % | - 0,07 % |
| HTC Vive Cosmos | 1,54 % | 1,49 % | - 0,04 % |
| Pico Neo 3 | 0,74 % | 1,04 % | + 0,30 % |
| SteamVR user base | 1,87 % | 6,67 % | + 4,80 % |
Meta Quest 2 was able to increase again in July and cracks the 50 percent mark for the first time. This means that every second SteamVR headset is a Meta Quest 2. Meta's market share across all devices is 67.16 percent. The second-largest share of 15.26 percent is held by Valve with the Valve Index.
The Pico Neo 3 made it into the club of VR headsets with one percent or more SteamVR market share for the first time in July. Pico has been selling the device to European customers since May under the name Pico Neo 3 Link (review).
With Pico 4 and Pico 4 Pro, the company has two brand-new devices that could hit the market soon. The VR controllers of the new headsets have only recently been leaked.
PC VR usage stagnates
Valve’s survey data does not tell us how often and intensively the SteamVR headsets are used. The following statistic, which shows the monthly average of maximum concurrent SteamVR users, gives a better clue.
This number reached a new high of 24,000 in January 2022, which fell again in the following months. In June, the statistics recorded around 16,000 players, and in July, just under 18,000.
The Playstation VR 2 could bring some momentum back into the high-end VR market and satisfy PC VR fans with one or two polished titles. It would be even better if Valve launched a VR headset that plays SteamVR games independently and thus competes with Meta Quest 2.
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