Playstation VR Sales Figures Show the System is Doing Reasonably Well
PSVR didn’t have a super hot start last year, but that was more or less expected. The whole concept of home VR is fairly new, after all. This year marks a chance for each of the big manufacturers to carve out a bigger slice of the VR pie. So far, it looks like Sony’s hardware is doing alright, with first-quarter VR sales estimates set at around 429,000 units.
That’s pretty good! It’s not the top of the heap, but it’s still an alright set of figures for a relatively new kind of hardware. Top of the sales charts this quarter was Samsung’s Gear VR. Now, in all fairness, Samsung’s headsets are a fraction of the cost compared to the PSVR. Even with this tremendous difference in price, Samsung’s sales this quarter were around 489,500 units. Meanwhile, the Oculus Rift got creamed, ringing in at less than 100,000 units for this quarter.
All this means is that VR as a home unit is doing okay. We’re still in pretty early days, with a handful of quality titles available between all of the systems combined. We’ve got a while yet before we start seeing applications that will get people psyched about the technology. Sony has an existing base of gamers to build off of, while Samsung is banking on the price difference moving enough units. Without those killer apps however, the market is going to stay relatively niche for a little longer.