In the past five years, we’ve witnessed a remarkable transformation in the XR (Extended Reality) landscape, marked by the rise of standalone headsets and the arrivals of new players like Apple, with Google soon joining the fray. Despite these developments, the PC VR platform has been quietly but steadily gaining traction.
Imagine telling the version of myself from early 2020 about all the changes in VR since then—there are so many surprises I would have struggled to believe. For one, Facebook has rebranded itself as Meta, phasing out the iconic ‘Oculus’ brand that was once a staple for VR enthusiasts and even those outside the VR community. Despite such radical shifts, Meta’s Quest headset has taken the lead as the primary VR platform.
On top of that, Apple’s decision to jump into the VR market with a high-price tag headset at $3,500 would have raised some eyebrows, and that Google, not far behind, is set to unveil its own Android XR operating system, complete with a flagship headset crafted by Samsung. And while I might have guessed Microsoft discontinuing its Windows MR platform and pulling the plug on HoloLens, everything else would have sounded like science fiction.
Yet, amidst all this upheaval, PC VR, the pioneer of VR platforms, hasn’t just survived—it’s been growing.
### Monthly-Connected Headsets on Steam Over the Last Five Years
Each month, Valve gathers insights from Steam users to capture a snapshot of the hardware and software landscape, tracking changes over time, including VR headset usage.
The data from this survey gives us a measure we call ‘monthly-connected headsets’—it’s our best approximation of ‘monthly active VR users’ on Steam. However, it simply tells us the number of VR headsets connected in a month, not necessarily used.
If you were to focus solely on the percentage of VR users on Steam, you might mistakenly assume the category is in decline.
But that doesn’t paint the full picture. Keep in mind that Steam’s user base has grown immensely over the past five years—doubling, in fact.
To clarify the data, Road to VR uses a model that combines historical survey data with official figures from Valve and Steam. This model aims to make sense of Steam’s changing population dynamics and estimate the actual—not just percentage—number of headsets being used.
With this clearer view, it’s evident that the raw number of VR headsets in use on Steam has been on a slow but consistent rise.
While Steam’s user base is expanding at a faster rate than its VR user segment, the absolute number of VR enthusiasts has actually been climbing. So, from a developer’s perspective, the pool of potential VR customers is getting larger.
This growth wouldn’t be possible if Valve hadn’t designed SteamVR to be an open platform, welcoming any headset manufacturer. With at least 24 different headsets used each month, SteamVR stands as the largest and most varied PC VR ecosystem available today.
There’s no denying that Meta’s contribution has significantly bolstered PC VR’s growth. Thanks to the affordable and widely accessible Quest headsets, a new wave of users has joined the VR community—some of whom have transitioned to using these headsets for PC VR as well. Today, Meta’s models represent a significant 70% of monthly-connected headsets on Steam.
So, what lies ahead for PC VR in the next five years? We’ll just have to wait until 2030 to see how this story unfolds!
