Almost two years after its launch, Quest 3 has lastly claimed the highest spot because the most-used VR headset on Steam. Although the metric is measured by Steam’s stats, the significance of the milestone has little to do with PC VR.
The Information
Quest 2’s four-and-a-half 12 months streak because the most-used VR headset on Steam has lastly come to an finish, dethroned by Meta’s personal Quest 3. Fittingly, Quest 3’s ascendance comes virtually precisely two years after the headset was first launched on October tenth, 2023.
That’s based on the most recent Steam {Hardware} & Software program Survey, which reviews some baseline statistics about what sort of {hardware} and software program is utilized by the platform’s inhabitants, and to see how issues are altering over time, together with using VR headsets.
The newest information exhibits that Quest 2 has fallen to 26.17%, whereas Quest 3 simply barely forward for the primary time with 26.68% of the share of monthly-connected VR headsets on the platform.
The following closest headset is Valve’s personal Index, coming in at a distant third with 13.47% share.
Whereas it took Quest 3 two years to steal the throne, Quest 2 had a extra meteoric rise. It took only a few months after launch for Quest 2 to overhaul the then-reigning champion, Rift S. And it held onto the #1 spot for a staggering four-and-a-half years… till now.
Launched again in October 2020, Quest wasn’t only a extra inexpensive and refined model of Meta’s promising new line of standalone ‘Quest’ headsets. It was additionally launched proper within the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that ensued; a time when folks have been searching for methods to attach and escape with out leaving their houses.
Whereas Quest 2 was launched as the corporate’s most inexpensive standalone headset thus far, Quest 3 launched with a better value and with out the increase of a world pandemic. It might have taken two years for it to take the crown because the most-used VR headset on Steam, however that doesn’t make the second any much less necessary.
My Take
Quest 3’s rise to the most-used headset on Steam truly has little to do with PC VR. Extra importantly, I see it as essentially the most concrete signal we now have that the transition between Quest 2 and Quest 3 is lastly tipping towards the latter.
This has necessary implications for builders and Meta’s VR ecosystem.
At launch, Quest 3 was closely marketed round its “combined actuality” (AKA passthrough AR) capabilities. Certainly it had considerably greater decision passthrough cameras with coloration—an enormous enchancment over the grainy, black & white passthrough capabilities of Quest 2.
However with such an enormous inhabitants of Quest 2 headsets, builders had little incentive to construct combined actuality content material that solely labored nicely on Quest 3. And so most builders stayed centered on constructing pure VR content material that may run simply as nicely on both headset.
Even among the many pure VR content material, many builders weren’t initially centered on tapping Quest 3’s additional energy and backbone; understandably, it was troublesome to commit the sources to optimizing for a headset that was simply getting a foothold among the many Quest inhabitants.
That led to a string of main releases that launched both with out consideration for Quest 3 in any respect, or at finest, an eventual post-launch patch with enhancements for Quest 3. Even Meta’s personal main first-party launch, Asgard’s Wrath 2 (2023), wasn’t nicely optimized for Quest 3 at launch; it took 5 months earlier than the sport was lastly up to date to faucet the headset’s better energy and visible high quality.
As we speak, I believe we are able to say the tide has lastly shifted. Quest 3 just isn’t solely essentially the most used headset on Steam; its sibling, Quest 3S, has practically the identical capabilities, and itself holds a 7.87% share of VR headsets used on Steam. Mixed, the 2 headsets make up 34.55% of the headsets used on Steam.
The shift between generations is undeniably right here.
That’s to not say that Quest 2 is out for the rely. It’s nonetheless the second-most used headset on Steam and certainly makes up an enormous portion of energetic Quest customers general. However whereas Quest 2 had clearly been the first focus for many builders, the time has come for Quest 3 and 3S change into the better precedence.
The shift was a very long time coming, particularly for Meta. The corporate had been banking on combined actuality as a killer characteristic for its new headsets; even when it was (and I’d argue the corporate nonetheless hasn’t confirmed that out), Meta’s personal success with the proliferation and longevity of Quest 2 prevented combined actuality from taking middle stage. As I wrote again in 2023, a late surge in Quest 2 gross sales, a better value level for Quest 3, and an absence of a ‘killer app’ for combined actuality slowed the transition to the subsequent technology seemingly greater than Meta would have appreciated. Therefore it taking a complete two years for Quest 3 to lastly eclipse Quest 2 as Steam’s #1 headset.
Now as Quest 3 and 3S are able to take the highlight amongst builders, customers could begin to see extra of the combined actuality imaginative and prescient that Meta had promised on the launch of Quest 3.
