Over the past five years, the XR scene has undergone remarkable changes, especially with the rise of standalone headsets and the entry of giants like Apple and soon-to-join Google. Despite these shifts, the PC VR platform has been plodding along, experiencing slow yet steady growth.
Looking back to early 2020, it’s almost unimaginable how much has transformed in the world of virtual reality. Who would have guessed that Facebook would rebrand to Meta and scrap the renowned ‘Oculus’ name? Still, Meta has managed to establish its standalone Quest headset as the leading platform in the VR space.
If you’d told me Apple was going to leap into the market with a headset priced at $3,500, I would have been skeptical. Yet, here we are, and Google is tailing Apple closely, developing a complete Android XR system to back Samsung’s flagship headset. And Microsoft’s step away from its Windows Mixed Reality platform and HoloLens? Well, I might have seen that coming.
Nevertheless, the original VR platform, PC VR, remains robust, continuing to expand against the odds.
### Exploring Monthly-Connected Headsets on Steam
Every month, Valve gathers data from Steam users to analyze the prevalent hardware and software, marking trends in VR headset usage. This involves tracking ‘monthly-connected headsets,’ which gives us an estimate of ‘monthly active VR users’ on Steam. It’s essential to remember that this data shows only how many headsets were connected, not exactly how many were used.
While Valve’s data helps indicate which headsets rule the roost on Steam, it can be misleading. That’s because the data is shown as a percentage of Steam’s user base, a number that keeps changing and is never explicit.
At first glance, you might assume the VR sector on Steam is shrinking if you only look at percentages. But there’s more to the story. The Steam user base has increased significantly, nearly doubling in the past five years.
To present a clearer picture, Road to VR maintains a model using historical and official data from Valve and Steam. This model takes Steam’s fluctuating population into account, giving us an estimated actual count of headsets in use, not just a percentage.
With this model, it becomes evident that the actual number of VR headsets on Steam has been gradually rising.
In reality, while Steam has been growing faster on the whole than SteamVR users, the number of VR enthusiasts has been on a steady climb. In other words, even if the percentage of Steam’s overall community using VR headsets seems lower, the potential pool of VR consumers from a developer’s perspective is expanding.
This enduring expansion can be attributed to Valve’s foresight in designing SteamVR as an open platform, welcoming any headset manufacturer. More than 24 different headsets are being used on the platform monthly, making it the broadest and most varied PC VR ecosystem.
PC VR owes a debt of thanks to Meta as well. The wide-spread availability and affordability of Quest headsets have ushered in many newcomers to the VR world, with some transitioning to use their headsets for PC VR. Meta now accounts for an impressive 70% of monthly-connected headsets on Steam.
So, what’s on the horizon for PC VR in the next five years? Only time will tell. Here’s to seeing what awaits us in 2030!
