Every month there’s an exciting wait to see what trends emerge in the PC gaming market via the Steam hardware survey. This month, there is very little to talk about from a traditional component aspect, but an undeniable trend has emerged within VR gaming, and Valve is on the wrong end of the outcome.
While the Valve Index is among the best VR headsets you can buy right now, there is a concerning trend within the VR share on Steam that shows players are far more interested in both the Meta Quest 3 and its predecessor.
After a few months of temperamental results in the VR section of the Steam hardware survey, the overall percentage of Steam users who actively use a VR headset has grown to 2.24%, which amounts to a 0.40% increase overall. This is a notable 1% increase over October 2023, the month that the Meta Quest 3 launched.
This boom has been driven by the Quest headsets, and the Quest 2 still sits atop the list of VR headsets used on Steam with 40.64% of the share, a 2.77% increase over last month.
As for the Quest 3, despite still being very new to the market, it now sits in third place, owning a 14.05% share, and as I’ve alluded to before, this number will continue to grow over the coming year and it could very well surpass the Quest 2 before long.
The Valve Index, though, has suffered a substantial loss of 3.17%, dropping to a 15% share, meaning the Quest 3 could overtake it next month based on current trajectories.
With no news on a Valve Index successor and nothing seemingly on the horizon, interest could remain low in Valve’s VR headset while Meta continues to mop up interest from PCVR and standalone users alike.
Viewing the wider VR gaming market, the true popularity of the Quest headsets is hard to gauge entirely. So many are purchased with no intention to use them with Steam, meaning they wouldn’t crop up in the monthly hardware figures. We are still awaiting official statistics from Meta, but given that the Reality Labs department just posted its first-ever $1 billion month, it’s safe to assume VR gaming is well and truly flying right now.
If you have a VR headset but aren’t sure which games to play, our guide to the best VR games can offer some inspiration.