Just one month after launching, Meta Quest 3 is already the 5th most used VR headset on Steam.
The Steam Hardware & Software Survey is offered to a random sample of Steam’s user base each month. If you accept, it uploads a list of your PC specs and peripherals to Valve, as well as any headset used on SteamVR.
Quest 3 was the headset of choice for 5.2% of SteamVR users in November, a significant increase from 0.15% in October when the headset launched and first showed up on the survey.
Quest 2 also saw a slight increase in usage, as did the total percentage of Steam users with a VR headset. This suggests that PC gamers are continuing to buy Quest 2, which has been discounted recently, and that many Quest 3 buyers are new to VR, not just upgrading from previous headsets.
The hardware survey counts using Quest as a PC VR headset via both the official (Air) Link mode and the third party app Virtual Desktop.
Standalone headsets with PC VR modes, all Quest and Pico models summed, now make up the majority of VR usage on Steam, at just over 50%. “Real” native PC VR headsets are now the minority.
The rise of Quest 3 on Steam and the dominance of standalone headsets comes just as Valve launched an official Steam Link app for Quest at the very end of the month.
The low friction convenience and usability of Steam Link may see Quest headset usage on Steam surge even further this month, so we’ll be keeping a close eye out for the release of December’s Hardware Survey data in early January.
