In the monthly Steam survey, we are general met by the same statistics and rarely are we surprised. We will check in every month to make sure nothing changed too much, but generally, it remains the same for months at a time. August was a little different. In the results Steam collected from August, the Rift S is official being used more than all Windows Mixed Reality Headsets combined. The Valve Index usage has also doubled in the past month.
Virtual reality is at an all time high on the Steam store, and there’s no signs of slowing down. The Rift S is taking up 11% of all headsets being used, and the Windows Mixed Reality has fallen to just a simple 8%. There is a lot of factors that play into this happening. The Rift S is relatively new (released in May 2019) and the Windows Mixed Reality headsets have been on the market for almost two years now. On top of the longer life, most of the Windows V R headset have also been stopped in production.
There have been a handful of generous discounts for Windows headsets, but that hasn’t directly translated to headset being bought. In the virtual reality industry, the customers are smart, well informed, and know what they want. The Samsung Odyssey is nearly the same thing as the HTC Vive Pro. It has the manual IPD adjustment, OLED panels, and even integrated headphones, but the discount price of $299 often made consumers question if it was really as good as it sounded.
Overall, if you have used both headsets, you know that there is not a huge difference in performance. Many common consumers though know that Oculus and Vive are going to be producing better hardware generally, so they will opt to spend the extra $150 to buy the “nicer” headset, even if it isn’t generally true. Even with the Oculus Rift S releasing with numerous bug problems that were software related, gamers still opted for the Rift S over the Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
The company quickly fixed said software issues with software updates, so it makes sense for why the Rift S has gained such popularity on Steam. And it seems like it is taking the customers right away from the Windows platform. This is most likely caused by the Rift S simply being better than Windows. With the Passthrough feature ebbing available, the inside out tracking, and better controllers, there is no reason to not go with the $400 Oculus Rift S.
The Valve Index doubled its usage on Steam in August. Although doubling seems like a lot, the percentage of VR headsets being used for Valve is a small 3.3%. The month before, it was only at 1.5%, which was going to be improved no matter what. The Valve Index is officially shipping upon being ordered now, so we can look to see this number increase with every month that passes by.
As for the tracking systems being used for Steam games, inside out is slowly taking a large piece of the pie. Inside out tracking is up all the way to 19.09%, and exteranal sensors are falling as they as are at 79.32% at the end of August.
Lastly, VR usage on Steam is at an all time high. Last September, it was only at .75%, now in at the end of August in 2019, the percentage of Steam users using a VR headset is up all the way to 1.04%. Although it isn’t a huge number, it is a huge increase and great news for the VR world. For more gaming and VR hardware news, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
