Virtual reality or VR is, understandably, still niche despite the fact that the Meta Quest 2 (formally known as the Oculus Quest 2) has garnered roughly 20 million sales as of early 2023. However, according to a recent survey, the Meta Quest 3 Steam user share is on the rise despite a drop in VR interest.
Despite launching ahead of the holiday period, poor Meta Quest 3 sales led to Meta cutting production of the headset up to 80%, while weak pre-orders meant the Meta Quest 3 supply was cut by millions of units. However, the recent Steam Hardware & Software Survey for December 2023 paints a much nicer picture for the headset's future.
According to the Steam survey, which is optional for users to participate in, the Meta Quest 3 saw a rise of users by 2.55% in December 2023, bringing it to a total of 7.74% of the VR market share. The Meta Quest 2 still holds a massive 37.87% of the market for Steam users, but it has dropped by 2.58% in the last month, which is likely due to some players upgrading their VR setup.
While it seems like the Meta Quest 3's adoption rate is disappointing according to Steam's survey, its worth nothing that VR takes up a mere 1.84% of the Steam player base. That's extremely small considering how many users Steam has, and will hopefully grow as bigger IPs enter the VR market.
This is not taking into account the fact that Meta Quest 3 is almost exclusively marketed as a standalone headset. Access to a VR-ready gaming PC is still expensive for many, while the Meta Quest line of headsets is still a fairly priced and easy way to enter the VR market without breaking the bank. And as Meta solidifies its exclusive line up with titles like Asgard's Wrath 2, which is certainly worth playing according to our sister site's Asgard's Wrath 2 review, it's no surprise that many Quest players will use it as a standalone headset first and foremost.
With a cheaper rumored Meta Quest 3 Lite looking to make access to the headset even more accessible, playing the best Half-Life Alyx mods on Steam with a VR headset should become even easier. But even if the Meta Quest 3 doesn't grow as fast as its predecessor, Meta is still dominating VR right now, and is likely to keep doing so for the foreseeable future.