It is generally claimed that PC VR utilization on Steam is shrinking, however here is why that is not truly true.
The Steam {Hardware} & Software program Survey studies the share of Steam customers that use a VR headset on SteamVR every month. In March this determine was 1.82%, down from 1.97% in February.
This determine has been regularly trending down since March 2020, when Valve modified the survey’s methodology to scan your SteamVR logs for the previous month as a substitute of solely at present linked headsets.
Taken at face worth, it is easy to conclude that PC VR has contracted over the previous 4 years. However there are two main concerns at play right here.
The primary is that this determine is a proportion. That signifies that if the variety of PC players grows sooner than the variety of PC VR customers, this proportion will lower, even when PC VR has truly grown in absolute phrases. However this is not a lot comfort. For PC VR to be thought-about succeeding, it ought to at the very least maintain tempo with PC gaming, proper?
Nicely when the second consideration is taken under consideration, it not solely retains tempo – it is truly rising. The most important challenge with the VR customers determine within the Steam {Hardware} Survey is that it contains China. The most well-liked PC VR headsets and SteamVR video games aren’t formally bought in China, and the variety of Chinese language customers on Steam has regularly elevated annually.
This is what that very same chart seems like when factoring out Steam customers with their language set to Chinese language:
Whereas Valve would not put money into bringing main new VR content material to SteamVR like Meta and Sony do for Quest and PlayStation VR2, PC VR does appear to nonetheless have sufficient natural momentum for development, albeit not on the tempo of different main VR platforms. And the cheaper model of Quest 3 nearly actually inbound might entice a brand new wave of PC players to leap into VR quickly.
