Based on a recent Facebook' revenue report, it looked like the Oculus Quest 2 had sold 1.5 million to 2 million copies in its first four months on the market, starting last October. Nielsen analytics company SuperData, however, recently asserted sales were significantly less than that:
Over 1M Oculus Quest 2 headsets were sold in Q4, breaking records. The Quest 2 sold more units in a single quarter than any VR device that is not powered by a smartphone. (The Samsung Gear VR holds the overall record and sold 1.4M units in Q4 2016.) The Quest 2 benefitted from a lower price than its predecessor and also from pent-up demand among those interested in joining the VR audience. The original Quest was sold out during much of 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on supply chains. The Quest 2 was also the first Oculus headset to launch around the holiday season, so its addressable audience included gift givers in addition to VR enthusiasts.
It's only a "record", to be sure, relative to the niche of VR, but not in the overall addressable market for interactive entertainment; in contrast, for instance, the Playstation 5 sold over 2 million units in its first two weeks on sale.
In any case, if SuperData's estimate is accurate, it does suggests a small amount of good news for VR developers: Facebook reported "other" revenue of $539 million in Q4 2020. So if it only sold 1 million Quest 2s then, that accounts for roughly $300,000,000 of this revenue -- with the remaining $239 million not from Quest sales.
And you know what that means:
Most of that $239 million is likely from Oculus Quest game sales -- which translates to about 8 million games sold (assuming a $30 MSRP for premium games) give or take. Which is not bad, seeing as there's only about 2 million Quest 1/Quest 2 HMDs on the market!
All that to one side, last December I predicted that "Sales of Oculus Quest 2 in 2020 will under-perform expectations: Despite a major marketing push, under 2 million". Fortunately for my forecast abilities but unfortunately for the VR industry as a whole, that prediction still sounds even more accurate than I originally thought.
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