The Meta Quest 3 is now the fifth most popular VR headset among Steam users, November’s Hardware Survey has revealed. This might not seem noteworthy at first, but with the recent news of a native Steam Link app, and the headset only being two months old, it’s quite the achievement for Meta’s latest VR venture.
I’ve been keeping a keen eye on the Meta Quest 3 given its vast improvements over the previous model, and the latest Steam findings come as no surprise to me. Jumping up to now own a 5.20% share of the hardware userbase – a 5.05% increase on October – I fully expect the Quest 3 to eventually overtake the Quest 2, which currently leads the way with 40.45%, but it might take at least another year.
The addition of wireless Steam Link will aid this, but also there’s the obvious caveat that the holidays are right around the corner, and many players won’t get their hands on a shiny new headset until then.
Landing a top 5 spot this early is great, and the Meta Quest 3 is now rubbing shoulders not only with its predecessor, but the Valve Index (18.65%), Oculus Rift S (9.69%), and the HTC Vive (5.60%).
While it’s great to see the Meta Quest 3 doing so well, VR on Steam is still a struggle generally speaking. Only 1.89% of Steam users have a VR headset that they actively use with the platform. Of course, this isn’t a reflection on sales of many VR headsets given that they can be used without any need to connect Steam.
While I’ll always have an interest in which headsets are performing well, I’m throwing all my hope into seeing the number of overall Steam users with a VR headset grow. It’s a tricky number to take seriously, given the number of accounts for smurf and bots.
I think it would be a huge success if, by this time next year, we see that number grow to around the 2.5% mark. The Meta Quest 3, and subsequent Meta Quest 2 second-hand market will play a huge role in this.
Already got a Meta Quest 3 and don’t fancy hooking up to Steam? Well, check out the best Meta Quest 3 games that you can play natively on the headset instead.