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

Big month for Meta indeed—they went from approximately 60% to 68% of the PCVR market! As for their revenue vs costs, I’m pleased to see them spending so much on R&D. Those costs aren’t lost money, they’re an investment into the long-term future of VR.

Results from February 2024 are in - it seems like Quest 3 is slowing down, but still increasing - and Index is slightly picking up:

Pico 4 is not all dead, same for Quest Pro - both had small increases.

The most interesting changes may be the first ever appearances of the Varjo Aero and Big Screen Beyond. I earlier said that so few bought the Aero that it didn't make the list - and as shown, no one uses the Aero in normal Steam games. Aero had several years in head start, still Big Screen Beyond is slightly more popular at launch. 

Overall, Steam users with VR hmds got reduced from 2.24% to about 2% - so it does not seem that Quest 3 gets more into PCVR, but existing users are changing to Quest 3 instead, probably mostly Quest 2 users. 

One in 8 Steam VR users still use a Rift CV1 or Rift-S hmd, nice to see. In fact, Rift CV1 is the 6th most used hmd on Steam, as the WMR category includes many different hmds. 

The list also shows one giant weakness of PCVR - there are too many hmds, and devs cannot test their games on all. Recently, a game like Bootstrap Island only supports Meta hmds and Index, but got several critical reviews and posts from users of unsupported hmds - like Reverb G2. A few Aero owners were so vocal that devs behind Hubris got an Aero to make the game work - and these are just a few examples. Too many different hmds create too much friction for VR PCVR devs. 2c. 

Results from March 2024 have arrived:

MARCH 2024

I had expected Quest 3 to be more popular than Index now, but it seems Index is putting up a good fight 🙂 Index was the highest-mover in March 2024 followed by Quest 3, while Quest 2 lost the most. Some also found their old Rift-S hmds again, nice to see 🙂 Rift CV1 did really not move. 

HTC Vive Elite moved a little upwards and was the non-Valve and non-Meta hmd to gain the most. Meta Quest Pro declined the most after Quest 2 - maybe caused by a move to Quest 3? 

But nothing much to write about this month. Also a small overall decline may not mean that PCVR got reduced, because the number of 2D gamers may have risen more than VR players. Remember that when the total number of Steam users grow, then the same number (=unchanging) of PCVR users would be shown as a PCVR decline.

Better late than never - results from April:

April 2024

In April, Pico 4 gained the most, followed by Quest 3. Index and Quest 3 are now very close, and it's expected that Quest 3 will take the 2nd position soon, also being half the price of the Index. 

Biggest reductions were seen for Index, Rift-S and WMR. 

Overall there was a 0.1% improvement of SteamVR users - not much, seems the 2% is hard to move. 

UpLoadVR has posted a nice article showing the increase in SteamVR users if Chinese users are filtered out:

https://www.uploadvr.com/quest-3-used-on-steam-as-much-as-valve-index/

Looks like the Quest 3 will overtake the Valve Index next month.

"Big up" the Pico 4 - doing well I see!

A couple of stubborn people with DK1s still plugged in.

I wonder if they are using Razer Hydras for tracking like we used to.

New results just arrived:

MAY 2024

Does seem that we've reached some kind of saturation or balance with 2% of SteamVR users having VR hmds connected. Even the Quest 3 could not help changing this number, it more seems that Quest 3 cannibalizes on other hmds instead of attracting many new PCVR users, sadly. 

Interestingly, Index grew much more than Quest 3 in May - Index grew nearly 1%, while Quest 3 was close to a standstill growing 0.07 %. I had expected Quest 3 to overtake Index long ago, after all Quest 3 is only 50% of the price of the Index kit. Personally, I still love the Index for the big fov, ability to use 144 Hz, awesome speaker sound, best tracking you can get, direct DisplayPort connection (no streaming or artifacts) - and the awesome performance in native SteamVR games (my Rift CV1 needing two layers of drivers in such games is about 25% slower). If my Index broke, I'd buy a new one - even if I could easily get the BigScreen Beyond (but locked IPD, much glare, only 75 Hz in full res, no sound, small fov - nope, not going there). 

Btw, Rift CV1 made a small comeback growing 4 times more than Quest 3 - meaning Rift CV1 grew 0.3%. Now, 0.3% may not seem much - but the total presence of Varjo Aero is just 0.13% - which puts 0.3% into some perspective 😉

BigScreen Beyond might never really matter much, but grew 0.14% in May. 

In May we did get oled-loving games like MADiSON and OVRDark, but I doubt these game fueled the CV1 and Beyond increases 😎 I did switch from Index to Rift CV1 in both of these games though. 

I suspect that the SteamVR numbers do not tell the whole story for Quest 3. Personally, I use mine daily, but I haven’t fired up SteamVR in months. I pretty much play stand-alone only these days. I play a lot of Walkabout for social VR, and Ancient Dungeon and Dungeons of Eternity for co-op adventuring. The first two don’t benefit much from PC (they look almost identical to the stand-alone versions, and I prefer the ease of just putting on the headset and playing), and Dungeons of Eternity is only on Quest (one of the great Quest-exclusive games we’ve gotten in the past year, along with other bangers like Asgard’s Wrath 2 and Assassin’s Creed Nexus).

I still connect my headset to my PC every day for work, but when it comes to gaming, the stand-alone experience with the Quest 3 is compelling enough that I haven’t felt the urge to play any PCVR games.

I suspect a lot of Quest 3 users feel the same way--the games are already great, so who needs a PC?

Yeah, Fallout and MSFS are the only things keeping the PCVR flame alight for me, 2 aging titles, otherwise it’s standalone.

Seems I forgot to post results from June 2024 - well, better late than never, here comes both July and June 2024 results:

June 2024

No hmd got boosted much in June, and slightly worrying was the 0.24% reduction of Steam users with VR headsets - but it's summer time, increased heat and more outdoor activities usually reduce VR usage in the summer.

July 2024 was not very exciting too:

JULY 2024

Interesting with the great Quest 2 boost - and Index still manages to keep the second place. But Index is twice as expensive as the Quest 3, odds are Quest 3 being so much cheaper will soon take the second place. Otherwise results are much in line with the June results. 

In a month we may see if the PSVR2 manages to get on the list...