Meta's VR App Supernatural Adds Single-Artist Workout Playlists
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Supernatural is a VR fitness app with boxing and workouts that smash and dodge targets like Beat Saber.
What's happening
Supernatural, a popular VR fitness app bought by Meta last year, is creating workout playlists focused on individual artists.
Why it matters
Fitness is one of the big reasons nongamers have started adopting virtual reality, but VR fitness still has a long way to go.
What's next
Workouts on Katy Perry tracks will land June 27, followed some for Imagine Dragons, The Weeknd, Swedish House Mafia, Kid Cudi, Coldplay and Lady Gaga.
Meta's virtual reality fitness subscription Supernatural is launching new workout collections with one artist's music fueling the playlist for boxing and cardio target smashing in VR.
The first "Supernatural Artist Series" will feature Katy Perry tracks in a boxing routine and a "flow" workout -- the kind of target-slicing and obstacle-dodging concept that most people first tried in Beat Saber. The planned lineup of more Artist Series workout collections includes Imagine Dragons in July, The Weeknd in August, Swedish House Mafia in September, Kid Cudi in October, Coldplay in November and Lady Gaga in December.
The workouts, like everything in the Supernatural app, are part of a standard subscription, which costs $19 a month or $180 a year. The app itself works on the Quest and Quest 2 headsets. It connects with Apple Watches and other fitness trackers to log real-time heart rate, working similarly to Apple Fitness Plus and Amazon's Halo fitness video service.
Supernatural was one of the first subscription-based services on the Oculus Quest (now the Meta Quest). Meta bought the company behind Supernatural in October.
That happened to be soon after COVID-19 lockdowns suddenly trapped much of the world inside their homes, without open gyms or even the certainty, at the time, that outdoor exercise would be safe if you entered the proximity of a stranger. Interest in virtual reality -- and VR fitness -- jumped during the pandemic.