Steam Hardware Survey - July 2025 results included (see latest post in this thread)

From the graph, Rift-S percentages rose more than CV1 figures dropped so it's definitely not just CV1 upgrading going on. Personally I think I large proportion of the negativity towards the S were from enthusiasts resenting the apparent departure towards mainstream that the S is.

Not having manual IPD is a bar for anyone who's eyes don't fall within the range catered for and the audio is poor if you're not doing what I'm doing and using surround speakers (or headphones). But things like tracking (for me at least) is as good or better than CV1 was, and resolution and godrays are way better, confort is on another level too and there's the convenience of inside-out tracking.

I think £400 is the right target price for a headset to encourage VR take-up and I'd like Facebook to stick to producing the best headset they can for that price in the future. Hopefully the next Rift will have manual IPD adjustment, decent headphones, another bump in res and eye-tracked foveated rendering for the same price.

I also think that even though we now have Link, people should still weigh up the pros and cons of Rift rather than Quest, if PCVR is the reason they want a headset (or another PCVR dedicated headset from another manufacturer if they can afford it).

A number of VR news sites are investigating a story doing the rounds about the accuracy of the Steam information, and that in fact it has some serious discrepancies and possible under and over reporting. As you would imagine getting the team at Valve to comment on this "unofficial" reporting is near to impossible, but following a number of recent departures a picture is being built up from anecdotal sources. I think the results will surprise many.

Completely forgot to add results from February 2020 to this thread, thanks to @kevinw729 for reminding me ;)

Actually things look remarkably bad for Feb 2020:



- to put everything into perspective:

September 2019 = 1.04%
October 2019 = 1.03%
November = 1.02%
December 2019 = 0.87%
January 2020 = 1.31%
February 2020 = 0.97 %

It's kinda worse than going 6 months back, it does not make sense to me. Now, a few weeks ago I did read somewhere that some users with Rift connected experienced that Steam didn't register the CV1 in the survey. That could explain the massive CV1 reduction, but still some CV1s did get counted. Not sure corona can be blamed for the massive reduction from 1.31% to 0.97% (about 35% reduction). I guess we should take the current results with a grain of salt...

Kevinw729 already posted these trends, which again might be flawed:



With Alyx so close and hmds being sold out everywhere, the last thing I'd expect in Feb 2020 would be a reduction in connected hmds. Let's see how it goes next month... 

^^^Might be publicly used business hmds that are now being burned in a huge fire pit as no one will now use them. Lol

I posted in another thread that I didn't think Steam surveys would be very meaningful for the next few months. Even without the problems of supplying new VR headsets, people are busy with a variety of things I think.

From my own point of view I seem to need to feel more involved with the reel world now rather than escape to the virtual, which is the oposite of how I thought I'd feel. Taking in a lot of news on the TV and websites, listening to decent music on the radio.

Some people having to make a lot of arrangements for kids being at home with schools closing... or just searching for places with toilet rolls :| 

People working at home may just want to get out of the house for some fresh air when the works done or sit down with the kids. When this has been going on a bit longer, boredom will probably set in and gaming will feel like more of a draw.

DaftnDirect said:

People working at home may just want to get out of the house for some fresh air 

As long as you don't meet and infect other people, lol ;) Actually a problem may be that infected persons have no symptoms and may still be able to spread the virus (some child in a newly publish paper had no symptoms for 3 weeks, but the virus was detected in stools). Guess no one should leave the house for a few weeks  B)  

Personally I think VR is awesome. We've been at home since last Thursday when schools closed (until March 30, for now), I've been out like 3 times for shopping. It's no big deal (we have a big house and a garden), and after "doing time" in Boneworks, taking a walk in Stormland to enjoy some alien daffodils or whatever is growing, sitting in SteamVR Alyx Home watching everything - or doing a spacewalk in Mission: ISS I feel close to completely refreshed  :)  

(Looks awesome CV1 ss 2.0)

"I don't need the real world - I've got a HMD and prefer VR"  B) (ok, let's see how it goes in a few weeks...)

I believe that being at home due to the corona situation should increase hmd use, not reduce it. The SteamVR results are weird...

I’d go with the advice of stay at home if self isolating, for those who aren’t, social distancing is the thing which doesn’t exclude going outside... 1.5m separation, no cafes or bars etc

Even sitting in the garden is good enough for me after a few hours in the house

Yea seems a bit odd but there is a lot going on rn. Plus I'm sure there's a lot of people like me who always seem to get the survey when I don't have a HMD plugged in lol. Think the last one I had a headset plugged in for was like June.

OmegaM4N said:

^^^Might be publicly used business hmds that are now being burned in a huge fire pit as no one will now use them. Lol

Was at the ConExpo 2020 (Construction Expo) in Vegas just last week - everybody using a HMD was using either a CV1 or Rift S (apart from one who had an OG Vive).  Nobody mentioned worrying about the virus at that time to be honest, although they were mainly "proper blokes" who drove diggers and cranes for a living    ::smile:

DaftnDirect said:

I’d go with the advice of stay at home if self isolating, for those who aren’t, social distancing is the thing which doesn’t exclude going outside... 1.5m separation, no cafes or bars etc

Even sitting in the garden is good enough for me after a few hours in the house

Just got this - from a Danish Hospital - don't think young people with no comorbidities are in trouble - but we risk infecting old people with comorbidities:



So stay home - and plug in the HMD  o:)

Pretty sure I don't want to be anywhere but City17 next week lol

Even the Terminator stays home  ;)

https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1240418674491543552