Contrary to Longstanding Reports, PC VR Is Not Only Surviving but Thriving

Over the past five years, the XR landscape has undergone a remarkable transformation. Standalone headsets have taken off, with tech giants like Apple entering the scene and Google expected to follow suit soon. Despite these shifts, the PC VR platform has been quietly but consistently expanding its reach.

Back in early 2020, if you had told me what was to come, I would’ve been skeptical. You would’ve had to tell me that Facebook rebranded to Meta and that the iconic ‘Oculus’ brand was dissolved—something that defined VR for many enthusiasts and outsiders alike. Yet, even with these changes, Meta successfully propelled the standalone Quest headset to become the leading VR platform.

Furthermore, I would have had to be convinced that Apple would throw its hat into the ring with a headset priced at an eye-watering $3,500! And that Google would step in with an Android XR operating system to support a high-end device built by Samsung. Microsoft’s decision to discontinue its Windows MR platform and give up on HoloLens might not have surprised me as much.

Amidst all these developments, PC VR, the original virtual reality platform, hasn’t just survived—it’s thrived, continuing its growth journey.

Monthly-connected Headsets on Steam Over the Last Five Years

Valve keeps a close eye on Steam users’ hardware and software preferences each month, capturing trends, including VR headset usage. The data they collect measures how many headsets are connected to Steam each month—a metric we’ll refer to as ‘monthly-connected headsets.’ This is our best estimate of the number of active VR users on Steam, though it’s worth noting that this figure only accounts for connected headsets, not necessarily used ones.

While Valve’s data offers insight into popular headsets on Steam, understanding growth trends can be tricky since the data is represented as percentages relative to Steam’s growing user base, which is an ever-changing number.

If you focused solely on these percentages, you might assume that the VR user base is shrinking.

But that wouldn’t be an accurate picture. Consider how much the Steam user base itself has expanded over these five years—it’s practically doubled.

To get a clearer view, here at Road to VR, we maintain a model that takes into account Steam’s evolving population. Using historical survey data and official Valve figures, we aim to provide an estimate of the actual number of headsets being used on Steam, beyond just percentages.

From this POV, it’s clear that, while Steam’s overall growth outpaces that of SteamVR users proportionally, the absolute number of VR users has continued to rise steadily. Simply put, while the percentage of Steam players with VR headsets might be decreasing, the pool of VR users, crucial to developers, is actually increasing.

This upward trend wouldn’t have been possible without Valve’s strategy of making SteamVR an open platform, available to all headset manufacturers. Currently, over 24 different headsets are being used on the platform each month, making SteamVR the most diverse PC VR ecosystem.

PC VR’s ongoing growth is also partly thanks to Meta’s influence. With Quest headsets being widely available and affordable, many new users have discovered VR. And some of these users have transitioned to using their headsets for PC VR as well. As it stands today, Meta headsets make up an impressive 70% of the monthly-connected headsets on Steam.

As we look to the future, what might the next five years bring for PC VR? I guess we’ll have to wait until 2030 to see!