Only eight of Steam's 25 best-selling VR games need a headset, and Beat Saber is third
Eight of the 25 best-selling VR games on Steam actually require a VR headset, and the highest placed of them is Beat Saber at number three. The other 17 carry Valve's "VR Supported" badge, which means a flatscreen game with a VR mode rather than a game you need a headset to play at all.
Blade and Sorcery, a hooded figure holding a glowing purple blade over a burning floor. It is the second VR Only title on the list, at number nine. Image: WarpFrog
That is Valve's own "Top sellers" ordering with its VR filter applied, on the US store in English, read at 14:44 UTC on October 1. The filter returns 281 titles in all, and the figures here are the top 25 of them.
The eight that need a headset
In the order the page gave them, with the prices shown at that read:
- 3. Beat Saber, $19.99
- 9. Blade and Sorcery, $29.99
- 14. Kayak VR: Mirage, $16.09 from $22.99
- 17. CONVRGENCE, $14.99 from $24.99
- 19. Walkabout Mini Golf VR, $24.99
- 20. Dungeons of Eternity, $29.99
- 21. BONELAB, $39.99
- 23. VTOL VR, $29.99
The two names above Beat Saber are both free to play and both run on a monitor: War Thunder at one and VRChat at two. Gorilla Tag, which most Quest owners would expect to see, sat at 26 on this read, one place outside the top 25.
The badges come from Valve
Each row in the store markup is tagged either vr_required or vr_supported, which Valve shows to shoppers as "VR Only" and "VR Supported". The eight above are the rows tagged vr_required. Nothing here is a judgement about how good anyone's VR mode is, and Valve applies the tags itself.
What this ranking is, and what it is not
Valve calls the ordering "Top sellers" and publishes no methodology for it. There are no units, no revenue figures and no stated time window, so it should be read as the store's own merchandising order and not as a sales table.
It also moves. Reads between 14:26 and 14:44 UTC on October 1 returned the same eight VR Only titles each time, but positions inside the list shifted: BONELAB and Dungeons of Eternity swapped places, and so did HITMAN World of Assassination and PAYDAY 2. Anyone checking the page later will get a different arrangement, and the figures above are a snapshot of 14:44 UTC rather than a standing chart.
Two of the 25 were discounted at that moment, Kayak VR: Mirage at 30% off and CONVRGENCE at 40% off. Both were in place before the 10 AM Pacific start of the Steam Autumn Sale that Devs United Games put at October 1 to October 8, so the price column on this list will read differently through to October 8.
The shape of the list
Racing and flight sims account for a large share of the VR Supported entries: Le Mans Ultimate, Assetto Corsa, F1 25, DCS World Steam Edition, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition and Elite Dangerous are all in the 25. Those are games people buy for a wheel or a stick and then use a headset with, which is a different purchase from the eight above.
Valve has asked at least one studio for a day-one Steam Frame port, and that title, UNDERDOGS, sat at 50 on the same read.
Chart position is not the same as a healthy business. Walkabout Mini Golf VR sits at 19 while its studio, Mighty Coconut, is cutting 10 jobs in its second round this year.
