Sony's PlayStation VR headset is off to a solid start, racking up 915,000 sales since hitting stores back in October 2016. That puts it well on target to meet the company's 1 million units sold six month sales target.
It also has likely eclipsed the sales of both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive combined. Though neither company has shared precise sales figures, SuperData research puts the Rift at 243,000 sales and the Vive at 420,000 sales. Considering the high barrier to entry (a pricey high-end gaming PC and expensive VR gear itself), Sony's console-based solution is certainly more wallet-friendly.
The news comes from Sony's Playstation chief Andrew House, who expressed some surprise at the success of the headset in an interview with the New York Times.
“We were expecting it to be a lot smaller than it has turned out to be,” he said.
Virtually no stock
It seems Sony has hedged its bets so far on VR then – a million sales is hardly a gigantic target for a console add on tied to a machine with a userbase of well over 50 million.
And certainly it's been tough to get hold of a PS VR even for those looking to jump onboard. There's a mad rush to game stores every time a small stock release hits the market, with some Japanese stores resorting to a raffle system to appease patient customers.
For those sitting on the fence about VR's viability, the numbers (at least for Sony's gear) look promising. A million-ish users is a captive audience for developers to sell to (if you've got a PS VR, you're going to be looking for games to justify your investment), and that user base will only grow once Sony sorts out its slow production and supply chain issues. Hopefully E3 2017 will reveal a slew of new titles supporting the headset.
If you've been holding back on picking up a PS VR, it's now probably a safe bet that it'll be supported for some time to come – provided you can find one in the first place, of course.
