The latest virtual reality headset sales numbers we know so far

As of March 2017

2016 was the year for most of the major tech brands to market and ship their virtual reality headsets to consumers. However there is still some uncertainty about the sales figures in general. HTC Vive, Oculus and Google have been silent about their figures. Only Sony and Samsung have yet to announce their official numbers. As of March 2017, here are the statistics we know so far:

Sony Play Station VR

In an interview with New York Times, Andrew House, global chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment revealed PlayStation VR’s sales for the first time. House said, consumers have purchased 915,000 of the headsets as of February 19, roughly four months after the headset went on sale.

“You literally have people lining up outside stores when they know stock is being replenished,” said Mr. House, describing the scene in Japan, one of the largest games markets.

Oculus Rift and HTC Vive

The two major VR headset manufacturers, Oculus and HTC Vive, haven’t released any official numbers yet. However, a recent data from SuperData Research estimates, there were 420,000 HTC Vive and 243,000 Oculus Rift headsets sold by the end of last year.

Google

SuperData Research suggests there were 260,000 Daydream VR headsets sold in the last quarter of 2016. Google hasn’t revealed any official numbers yet. However the company says, more than 10 million Cardboard viewers have shipped worldwide. There have been 160 million downloads of Cardboard apps on Google Play — with 30 of those apps having more than 1 million downloads.

Samsung

On terms of market adaptation, Samsung seems to be the clear winner amongst the other brands.

In an official announcement during a press conference at CES in January 2017, the company said more than 5 million Gear VR headsets are in consumers’ hands globally.

Samsung has also said, those users have watched more than 10 million hours of video in Gear VR and the mobile headset is currently available at 20,000 retail stores across the U.S.

Earlier in 2016, Samsung gave away free Gear VR headsets for Galaxy phone owners as a marketing campaign to promote virtual reality.

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