Meta Quest 3 Successfully Garners User Attention on SteamVR

In a long metaverse journey, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) grabbed a minor victory recently. Tech news provider Android Central reported that the company’s latest product, Meta Quest 3, is making big progress among the head-mounted displays (HMDs). 

The device is already among the top five headsets in November in SteamVR, a virtual reality (VR) and associated technology-focused platform on Steam.

Happy Holidays With Quest 3

About 5.6 percent of SteamVR users are using Quest 3. Oculus Quest 2 remains on top of the list with over 40 percent of individuals accessing content through it. Sales of the Meta Quest series have increased recently. Android Central speculates holiday sales are likely to be the reason for both Quest 2 and Quest 3 growth.

Meta Platforms announced Quest 3 in June 2023 and released it in October. According to VR publication RoadtoVR, the company recently sold 240K Quest devices, out of which Quest 3 accounted for 69K units sold. According to Bloonberg’s Mark Gurman, the latest HMD’s augmented reality (AR) passthrough is better than the previous devices in the series.

Additionally, the device has been praised by major publications including Wired and Polygon. According to the former, it has a more comfortable and “secure” fit. However, the display was still a bit blurry. The latter described it as “much more complete out of the box, with fewer obvious areas for improvement than the Quest 2.”

In October, a renowned analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, wrote his analysis regarding Quest 3 sales on his Medium, an online publishing platform. He speculated that shipment of units is likely to drop by half by the end of this year to 3.5 Million. With regards to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, it may sell nearly 1.5 Million devices in its lifetime.

Reality Labs, the company’s metaverse research arm, is in charge of immersive technology developments. The organization generated $2.2 Billion in revenue through Reality Labs last year. However, the segment suffered an operating loss of $13.7 Billion throughout the year. The financial blow eventually affected the company’s stock price with its value declining by as much as 65 percent.

Gaming is currently the largest segment in the entertainment industry. Experts see development in technologies like AR and VR will eventually increase HMD adoption. Furthermore, these devices may likely get smaller with time, allowing developers to make the technology befitting for gadgets like smart glasses.

However, consoles like PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and more are highly likely to dominate the gaming sector at that time as well. However, cloud gaming may prove to be a disruptive force for consoles. Data suggests that there will be over 500 Million users embracing cloud gaming by 2028.

Extended reality (XR) is making headlines in the market too. The term is increasingly being used as a catch-all phrase for mixed reality (MR), VR, and AR. Tech giants like Samsung, Qualcomm, and Google have reportedly developed an “XR Alliance” recently.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.