The XR panorama has modified considerably over the past 5 years with the flourishing of standalone headsets and new entrants like Apple and (quickly) Google. Regardless of all of that, the PC VR platform has continued a gradual however regular development.
A lot has occurred in VR in final 5 years that in case you had instructed me again in early 2020, I’m undecided I’d have believed you.
In any case, you’d need to say that Fb is not known as Fb. And that the corporate went on to dissolve the ‘Oculus’ model, which had lengthy been probably the most recognizable title within the trade for fanatics and even outsiders. And also you’d have to inform me that regardless of that, Fb Meta nonetheless managed to show its standalone Quest headset into the main VR platform.
Not solely that, you’d need to persuade me that Apple would dive head-first into the market with its personal headset… and it will value $3,500! Oh and that Google would observe rapidly behind with a whole Android XR working system underpinning a flagship headset made by Samsung.
To not point out Microsoft discontinuing its Home windows MR platform and giving up on HoloLens (okay truly, that one I may need believed).
Regardless of all of this, the OG VR platform—PC VR—continues to be kicking, and has the truth is continued to develop.
Month-to-month-connected Headsets on Steam Over the Final 5 Years
Every month Valve collects information from Steam customers to find out some baseline statistics about what sort of {hardware} and software program is utilized by the platform’s inhabitants, and to see how issues are altering over time, together with using VR headsets.
The info shared within the survey represents the variety of headsets linked to Steam over a given month, so we name the ensuing determine ‘monthly-connected headsets’ for readability; it’s the closest official determine there’s to ‘month-to-month lively VR customers’ on Steam, with the caveat that it solely tells us what number of VR headsets have been linked, not what number of have been truly used.
Whereas Valve’s information is a helpful approach see which headsets are hottest on Steam, the pattern of monthly-connected headsets is obfuscated as a result of the information is given solely as percentages relative to Steam’s inhabitants—which itself is an unspoken and continually fluctuating determine.
In the event you appeared solely on the p.c of VR customers on Steam, you’d suppose the class have to be shrinking.
However this isn’t the entire story. You’ll want to take into consideration that the Steam inhabitants itself has develop so much over the past 5 years. In truth, the Steam inhabitants has practically doubled in that point.
To demystify the information Highway to VR maintains a mannequin—based mostly on the historic survey information together with official information factors straight from Valve and Steam—which goals to account for Steam’s altering inhabitants and estimate the precise depend (not simply the p.c)—of headsets getting used on Steam.
On this approach we are able to see that the uncooked variety of VR headsets in use on Steam has truly been slowly however steadily rising over time.
So the truth is that whereas Steam itself is rising sooner proportionally than SteamVR customers, the entire variety of VR customers has been steadily climbing. Put one other approach: though the p.c of the Steam inhabitants utilizing VR headsets is reducing, from a developer standpoint, the variety of potential VR clients has been rising.
This certainly wouldn’t be the case if Valve hadn’t arrange SteamVR from the outset as an open platform which any headset maker can choose into. There’s no less than 24 completely different headsets in use on the platform every month, making SteamVR by far the biggest and most numerous PC VR ecosystem.
PC VR little question additionally has Meta to thank for its continued development in spite of everything these years and modifications to the panorama. The extensive availability and low value of Quest headsets has introduced many new folks into the VR fold, and a few of them wind up utilizing the headset for PC VR too. Meta headsets account for a whopping 70% of monthly-connected headsets on Steam right now.
What is going to the subsequent 5 years maintain for PC VR? We’ll see you in 2030 to seek out out!
