New Steam Survey: Vive is outselling Oculus by two to one

By Imad Khan Published July 5, 2016

vive oculus survey june 25472241336 2b9f1f11ae k — Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr

The battle for virtual reality supremacy has been rough, but it’s looking like the more expensive HTC Vive is beating out the Oculus Rift.

In Steam’s monthly hardware survey, where it analyzes what processors or GPUs gamers are using, it found that far more of its users are buying HTC Vives.

Recommended Videos

According to those surveyed, 66 percent of Steam users own an HTC Vive while 27.75 percent own an Oculus Rift. The survey also asked if users owned an Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2), and 6.25 percent said they did. Even when combining the consumer Oculus Rift with the DK2, that comes out to 34 percent, a little over half of the market share HTC has claimed.

vr headsets — Image used with permission by copyright holder

What’s interesting is the fact that HTC’s Vive is a good $200 more expensive than the Oculus Rift. In achieving these results even in the face of a higher, $800 price tag, Vive can make a strong case that its headset is the superior one. Unlike Oculus, Vive uses motion controllers and motion detectors that are placed around your room to more accurately capture movements. This has translated to more positive reviews and consumer response when compared to Oculus. While both are still incredibly capable VR headsets, the hardcore early adopter audience went with the better option.

This does come as bit of a surprise, considering Oculus had far more publicity than Vive with its Kickstarter and subsequent purchase by Facebook. It turns out that consumers were paying very close attention to which headset would edge the other out.

Oculus has also been on a recent bidding war, courting developers to its side to make exclusive Oculus games. This has left gamers upset, as many feel that making certain games exclusive to Oculus would be the equivalent to making games exclusive to Samsung TVs.

Possibly in order to profit from this caustic environment, Valve has announced that it will pay developers to make games and has made it clear that it will not demand exclusivity. This more consumer-focused message by HTC and Valve may be what’s pushing consumers to their side.

The VR war is only beginning, as PlayStation is set to launch its PSVR this October and Razer is also entering the game with its Open Source VR headset. Stay tuned.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…

Computing

I fell out of love with VR, but the Vive Wireless rekindled the flame

Fallen out of love with VR? These HTC Vive accessories might change that

HTC Vive Wireless

Forgive me virtual reality fans, for I have sinned. It has been eight months since my last VR session. My faith in it as the future of gaming and connected entertainment has wavered. I've lost interest. I can't be bothered. My HTC Vive has languished on the floor under my desk, gathering dust and I barely noticed. Perhaps it's time that changed.
But what can a lapsed VR fanboy do to excite himself about virtual reality once again? I could buy a new headset. There are some exciting new options in the form of the Oculus Rift S and Quest, the HTC Vive Cosmos, and Valve's high-end Index.
But those are expensive, all-or-nothing options that do a disservice to the Vive I already own. It's hard to justify buying a whole new headset and any necessary sensors and controllers when I don't use the ones I have. Perhaps instead, some VR accessories and upgrades for my existing Vive could do the trick.
With that idea in mind, I reached out to HTC and was furnished with a number of intriguing options for a better HTC Vive experience. Can a few new toys and games kick-start my interest in virtual worlds ones again?

Falling out of love with VR
If you look back at my coverage of VR in the lead up to, and shortly after, the launch of the original HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, I was incensed. Excited. I was a true VR evangelist, sure that it would become a dominant new medium of entertainment enjoyed by gamers young and old within a year or two.
Having owned an Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2, and eventually the consumer release Vive and a Rift (I later sold the Oculus headsets), the progression I saw in just a few years was enormous. From static, seated experiences with no positional tracking, to motion controllers and roomscale experiences. I went from nausea-inducing, blocky roller-coaster rides to AAA experiences like Alien: Isolation and polished mini-game extravaganzas like Valve's The Lab.

Computing

The best Cyber Monday Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals still available now

The Surface Pro 11 on a brown table.

There are still a lot of Cyber Monday deals that you can shop, such as the Cyber Monday Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals that we have below. Far from the only Cyber Monday deals, there are also some excellent Cyber Monday Alienware gaming laptop deals if you’re looking to game on the move, while if you know what size you need, check out the Cyber Monday 17-inch laptop deals happening too, as well as some excellent general Cyber Monday laptop deals. For now, though, read on while we focus on the Cyber Monday Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals happening. Stylish yet powerful, these are great choices for many, and we’ve also included some key buying advice.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 13.5-inch Refurbished -- $620 $1,000 38% off
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 Microsoft

Go for a refurbished option and you can grab the perfect laptop for school for less. It has an Intel Evo Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. Its 13.5-inch touchscreen looks great and there’s 18 hours of battery life. It’s perfect for taking to class.

Computing

Don’t make this huge mistake when buying a MacBook on Cyber Monday

The MacBook Pro 16-inch on a table.

While Black Friday is behind us, Cyber Monday is still going to be a fantastic time to buy a MacBook. Whether you're looking for a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, you're bound to find some killer Cyber Monday MacBook deals that reduce prices to lower than they've ever been before.

For example, the M1 MacBook Air is already selling for just $599, while the M4 MacBook Pro has been reduced to $1,399 -- just to show how far-reaching the savings are.