Sony today announced that PlayStation has sold more than three million units, showing consistent sales over the course of the headset’s nearly two years on the market.

Announced on the official PlayStation blog today, the three million unit milestone is believed to put PSVR far ahead of other high-end headsets like the Rift and Vive, which are estimated to be around one million units each, despite those headsets having a six and a half month launch lead on PSVR.

Graph by Road to VR, data courtesy Sony

Since its launch back in October 2016, PlayStation VR has now been on the market for one year and 10 months. Sony has announced the one million, two million, and three million unit sales milestones for the headset, which combined paint a picture of impressively consistent sales over this period. The company says the three million milestone represents headsets “sold through” to consumers, rather than just the number sold to distributors which might not yet be in customers hands.

SEE ALSO
Sony Drops PlayStation VR Price by $100, Bundles Now Starting at $300

Additionally the company said they’ve sold 21.9 million PSVR games and experiences, which amounts to an average of 7.3 experiences per headset. It isn’t clear if this figure includes bundled or free experiences, or VR-optional titles like Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. The company says the headset’s library now includes some 340 titles.

Sony also shared the 10 most-played PSVR games to date:

  1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR [2017]
  2. PlayStation VR Worlds [2016]
  3. Rec Room [2017]
  4. Resident Evil 7 biohazard [2017]
  5. The Playroom VR [2016]
  6. Job Simulator [2016]
  7. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood [2016]
  8. Batman: Arkham VR [2016]
  9. Farpoint [2017]
  10. Superhot VR [2017]

It’s interesting to note that none of the top 10 titles were launched in 2018. To an extent that makes sense as games available longer give players more time to play, but with a new medium like VR we’d hope to see new titles regularly setting new benchmarks.

All in all, PSVR’s three million unit milestone seems outwardly like a success for Sony, especially considering its challenging sales proposition as an accessory which in many cases costs as much if not more than the PS4 console itself.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • mellott124

    Seems like ps4 is nearing its end but I’m thinking about buying a psvr as well. Just preordered the ps4 Spider-Man bundle. Really want to play RE7.

    • Lucidfeuer

      Those are dumb rumours. There won’t be a new PS until 2021/22.

      • Mike

        2020 seems more likely to me. And I’d say year 5 of 7 counts as “nearing its end”.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Nothing surprising, the PSVR maybe subpar to other high-end headset but it always had way stronger incentives in it’s context: a PS4 is (somewhat) powerful enough and cheap, standard and optimised, the PSVR is cheap, the headband ergonomic is on point, it plugs to a TV and just at the press of button you’re in, you have mirroring on a big screen and 4 player couch experience.

    Despite it’s inferior quality and capabilities, the price, ergonomic and context of use were always way better incentives compared to Oculus or Vive. Now of course you can’t work or produce VR on a PS4, but I always preferred the console ecosystem (despite the low-resolution stretched screen being crap).

    Let’s hope Sony doesn’t do a Samsung, craps all over it’s competitive advantage and fails to release a better single PS4 model with an integrated breakout-box with a new PSVR2 in a bundle.

    • I’d say that the content is inferior to what we can expierience on PC, using PSVR is just more straigforward than using PC HMD’s, and PS has a brand advantage.

      • Pedro dos Santos

        Yea, considering the ecosystem PSVR is a part of (PlayStation) it’s weird that more games are coming out to PCVR even though the community is smaller. Sony needs to work more with devs. I think they are a bit more now. And maybe it’s also related cause PSVR was developed after Rift and Vive, so I guess Oculus and HTC have a head start in the relationship with VR developers.

        • Gary

          I think we just have to wait until next generation with PS5 and we will see a bigger PSVR boom. VR Developers are more mature, VR creation platform such as Dreams, PSVR 2 with new Move controls and JDI displays, and most importantly the PS5 hardware will no longer be underpowered so more ambitious projects can be ported over onto the platform. Exciting future ahead for VR

      • Lucidfeuer

        Well it’s a proprietary console, so it’ll never have as much content as PC, however looking at exclusive and quality content it won’t necessary always be the case that PCVR has more. Now it’s the case, clearly, with all the curated Oculus content especially, but it’s not sure that it’ll continue to be.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        it all depends on the hardware your PC has. Enough people that do have a headset for the PC not always have the right hardware to drive it. Also the PS4 can get more power out of it’s GPU due to being optimized for it, not like a PC GPU with ‘generic’ drivers which has to take a lot of OS overhead into account.

    • MosBen

      This is one reason why I try to keep harping on the people who suggest that upping the resolution of the Rift and Vive is the biggest thing needed to juice sales. The PSVR isn’t selling to non-techie parents, but it’s selling the pants off the Rift and Vive, and it’s because if you’re already a PS4 owner it’s a convenient, affordable, and ergonomic option for decent quality VR.

      • Lucidfeuer

        While resolution is important, in fact crucially missing on the PS4 (and I’m not even mentioned those crap FOV we’ve been stuck with), yes I’ve been pandering to the fact that VR headsets have a problem of conception, ergonomic and usage first. That’s why the Vive Pro is a failure, and nobody I know working in VR has even considered one.

  • JohnPA2006

    I have the Skyrim bundle PSVR on my PS4Pro, Love it, Zero motion sickness, compared to the original PSVR on the original PS4 back in October 2016, Scavengers Odyssey and DriveClubVR made me sick after 5 minutes. RecRoom suprisingly is great fun, I love the paintball games. So much fun, and Skyrim, those caves are like a whole new experience with your eye level with a monster !

  • It’s the headset with the best cost-quality ratio… and comes with the great PlayStation branding. I’m not surprised by this

  • Andrew Jakobs

    The PSVR World kit (v2 + camera + GT Sport (as an extra free game)) in the netherlands now for 244 euro’s (bol.com / mediamarkt.nl).. When I saw you can connect it to a PC, I just couldn’t resist buying one (yes I know it’s not plug and play on the PC, and tracking takes extra work, but hee, I’m a developer).