Despite the growing age of PlayStation VR, Sony has continued to effectively market and sell the headset, leading to steady sales which have now reached 5 million units total, the company has announced.
Sony Interactive Entertainment said today that its PlayStation VR headset has sold an impressive 5 million units to date, likely making it the best selling tethered headset so far. Sony made the announcement today alongside confirming that it has sold 106 million PS4 and PS4 Pro consoles.
The three year old PSVR lags behind the latest headsets in features and performance, but Sony’s investments in building a strong VR content library, long term commitment to the headset (including announcing PSVR compatibility with the upcoming PS5), and agressive bundling & marketing has kept the headset selling consistently since its late 2016 launch.
The 5 million unit milestone, which the company says represents “estimated” sales from launch to December 31st, 2019, indicates decent but slowing sales for the headset.
2020 will likely be a more more challenging year for PSVR as Facebook’s Oculus Quest represents a similarly priced and easier to use option which doesn’t require tethering to a console or PC, and holds a number of feature and performance advantages over PSVR.
The expected (but not yet announced) PSVR 2 will need to offer a strong showing to remain competitive with Quest and its successor in the long run. Recent signals from Sony suggest the company remains firmly committed to VR, while its console competitor, Xbox, is still steering clear.