PSVR Sales Grew the Virtual Reality Market By 30% in 2018

Despite struggling to perform in 2017, PSVR had a fantastic year in 2018, thanks to many factors. For one, the price was right through various PSVR sales and price drops, with many buyers getting their hands on the headset for $199.99, one of the least expensive options for virtual reality on the market. According to a SuperData blog post, PSVR achieved revenue sales that reached $3.6 billion, a staggering number, considering the barrier to entry. That’s a far cry from the $500 million in sales that was estimated a little over a year ago, and the low, adjusted SuperData numbers that came out shortly after the headset’s release.

That number also represents an increase in year over year revenue earned of 30%, with over 700,000 units being sold during the holiday quarter alone. This is more units sold than any other VR unit, with the next best being the Oculus Go Gold, which sold around 555,000—still, an impressive number.

The PSVR does have the benefit of being part of an ecosystem in which there are over 90 million PS4 systems out there, which, too, is noteworthy. Nevertheless, it deserves its praise.

As VR continues to grow, researchers at SuperData estimate $34.1 billion in revenue for virtual reality by the year 2022, an increase of 442% over 2018. It seems that one hand will wash the other as well, since we keep seeing standout PSVR titles like Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Moss, Beat Saber, Farpoint, and Resident Evil 7 that entice consumers to buy. The higher the install base, the more likely we are to see high quality games like the ones mentioned above.

PSVR is still in its infancy and has been compared to the PS One in terms of how far along the technology has progressed. It’ll be incredible to see how the headset evolves over time because many of the experiences we see today are quite impressive, even if the unit is only a couple years old.

In terms of VR as a whole, analysts believe video games will continue to play a huge role in the future. When you combine that with the almost endless possibilities of the non-gaming experiences and what we’re seeing with PSVR sales, the future of VR is looking bright.

[Source: SuperData via Venture Beat]