Meta Quest leads the VR market by a giant margin

Image: MIXED

Meta Quest 2 is the most widely used VR headset. But how big is the lead over other devices? A statistic tells us.

Over the weekend, the co-founder of Metaverse ad provider Zesty shared an interesting screenshot. The picture shows how many Hits from VR headsets the company’s WebXR content registered in the last 24 hours.

The statistics are only meaningful to a limited extent. It only shows standalone VR headsets with WebXR-enabled browsers (excluding PC VR devices). It also doesn’t show the number of different headsets. However, if you compare roughly the distribution ratio is insightful.

Twitter user Limbofeathers’ screenshot.

We already knew that Meta Quest 2 sold much better than the first Meta Quest and because of that is much more widely distributed. But the size difference the stats suggest is surprising. The system records 32 times as many hits of Quest 2 compared to Quest 1. Meta Quest 2 numbers must include users who switched from the older VR headset.

Meta Quest 1: A discontinued model

Meta Quest was released in May 2019, followed a year and a half later by Meta Quest 2 (Review), which cost less despite the newer chip and became one Entertainment product that sold millions of copies.

Meanwhile, with Meta’s blessing, more and more Meta Quest 2-only VR games are being released. Also, Meta’s proto-Metaverse Horizon is only available for Meta Quest 2, so the outdated hardware of the original Quest is no longer an obstacle.

The same applies to Meta’s flagship game Population: One, which is only playable with Meta Quest 2 until the end of October. It could happen more often in the future that a virtual reality app will stop supporting Quest 1 after launch. Meta wants to give third-party studios that exact option, potentially speeding up the end of the first Meta Quest.

Zesty registers Quest Pro

Also included in Zesty’s stats are Pico Neo 3 (review), unspecified devices using the Wolvic browser and, for the first time, a headset called “Quest Pro,” which prompted the entrepreneur to share the screenshot.

The Quest Pro is probably the product name of Project Cambria (info), ie Meta’s premium headset which will appear in October. Zesty’s system reads the name directly from the browser data.

There have already been hints that Meta will call its new, high-priced VR headset Quest Pro. If speculation proves true, the next iteration of the device, rumored to arrive in 2024, will likely be called the Meta Quest Pro 2.

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