SteamVR Statistics April 2022: Meta dominates
The PC VR market is saturated with Meta's headsets. This is confirmed by the latest SteamVR statistics.
Valve's monthly hardware and software survey covers all VR headsets that have been connected to a PC running Steam at least once in a month. The survey is collected randomly and users can decline to participate. Among other things, the statistics show the percentage of SteamVR users in the total Steam user base.
This percentage averaged 2.13 percent between January and March 2022 and fell back below the 2-percent mark in April, to 1.89 percent to be precise. The previous record value is 2.31 percent (May 2021).
Since Steam had an average of 132 million monthly active users in 2021, the SteamVR user base of 1.89 percent equates to about 2.5 million users with SteamVR-enabled VR headsets connected to their PC in April.
Meta stagnates at a high level
The following statistics show the market shares of VR headsets tracked by Steam in March and April 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.
| March 2022 | April 2022 | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Quest 2 | 47,35 % | 47,97 % | + 0,62 % |
| Valve Index | 15,09 % | 15,35 % | + 0,26 % |
| Oculus Rift S | 11,60 % | 11,07 % | - 0,53 % |
| HTC Vive | 7,00 % | 7,02 % | + 0,01 % |
| Windows Mixed Reality | 4,86 % | 4,69 % | - 0,17 % |
| Oculus Rift | 3,80 % | 3,85 % | + 0,05 % |
| Meta Quest | 3,85 % | 3,73 % | - 0,12 % |
| HTC Vive Pro | 1,55 % | 1,57 % | + 0,02 % |
| HTC Vive Cosmos | 1,62 % | 1,47 % | - 0,15 % |
| SteamVR user base | 2,13 % | 1,89 % | - 0,24% |
As usual in the last few months, only Meta Quest 2 and Valve Index increase significantly. All other devices stagnate or the market share even shrinks. HTC in particular has had to give up large market shares to Meta in recent years.
However, Quest 2's gains have slowed lately. Not a surprise, Meta's leading VR product now accounts for nearly one in two PC VR headsets. Meta's total market share for goggles is 66.62 percent.
Gains from Quest 2 are neutralized by losses from other Meta devices (this month: Oculus Rift S and Meta Quest 1). Meta has apparently reached market saturation. Those who wanted a Meta headset have bought it or are replacing it with a Quest 2.
PC VR market: Valve keeps silent and waits
Valve's survey data does not tell us how often and intensively the SteamVR Hedasets 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, dropped to just under 18,000 in March, and 19,000 players in April.
Currently, there is nothing in sight that could give new momentum to the PC VR market. Big and exclusive PC VR games have not been announced, nor has new hardware. Nothing has been heard from Valve about VR since Half-Life: Alyx. There are even rumors that Valve has sidelined VR.
In the medium term, PSVR2 could provide some growth if one or the other high-end VR game from Playstation 5 also appears on Steam. Another opportunity for PC VR is Meta's Wi-Fi dongle, which could convince more Quest 2 users to try PC VR streaming.
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