Sony's PlayStation VR hits 3 million systems sold. Is that a lot?
Commentary: It's a milestone, but there's plenty of room for improvement.
PS VR lets you take your PlayStation 4 into virtual reality.
On Thursday, Sony announced that it has sold over 3 million PlayStation VR systems. While that's an impressive feat, it gives us an indication that virtual reality (still) hasn't really hit the mainstream.
Sony has sold over 82 million PlayStation 4 consoles . So the 3 million statistic means that only a small number of PS4 gamers are opting for VR.
And it's not like Sony hasn't made PSVR accessible. PlayStation VR came out in 2016, and since its launch Sony has released several bundles of the VR system with its PS4, often at a discounted price.
But it's hard to really give the 3 million number context. Most manufacturers don't release sales numbers for their VR headsets -- competitors like HTC's Vive and Facebook's Oculus never have. According to earlier reports, Sony sold 915,000 PSVR sets by mid-February 2017, about four months after it released. This would mean Sony sold 2.1 million PSVR sets over the next year and a half.
Statista's estimated VR vendor share forecast for 2018.
Statista forecasts that Sony will account for 43 percent of the VR devices shipped in 2018, with Oculus following at 19.4 percent and HTC at 12.9 percent. That would put Sony pretty far ahead of the competition.
Sony also said that it has sold 21.9 million VR games. To celebrate, Sony announced two new games coming to PSVR: Creed: Rise to Glory (which releases Sept. 25) and Evasion (which releases Oct. 9). Preorders for both games are open now.
Whether PSVR isn't that sought after or VR fever is cooling down as a whole is up for debate. But at the very least, PSVR offers a way to experience VR without an expensive souped-up PC; PlayStation competitors like the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One have yet to explore VR.
