‘Rec Room’ Exceeds 3M User-created Levels with 40M Monthly Visits, Creator Monetization in the Works

By
Scott Hayden
-
19

Rec Room has grown significantly since it first came to prominence on PC VR headsets in 2016. It’s since added a slew of first-party multiplayer games as well as the ability for users to create their own spaces, which has predictably seen an explosion in content on the platform. Now, Rec Room has given us some insight into their success, and also a look at what’s next for the plucky social VR platform.

The studio today announced that Rec Room has exceeded three million user-created levels, which includes 40 million room visits per month. Additionally, the studio says that over 60 million friends have been made in Rec Room to date.

Those are really impressive numbers for a VR app of any stripe, however what’s more astounding is that the platform has tripled its player base since this time last year, which may have something to do with its launch on Oculus Quest in May 2019.

Battle Royale in ‘Rec Royale’, Image courtesy Rec Room

With a still fairly fresh round of funding under its belt, the studio is also announcing what it calls a “big expansion of the creation tools,” which will include a new terrain system and a new vehicle system. Neither are finished yet, however it promises to make user-created spaces bigger, more intricate, and more traversable with the addition of pilotable vehicles.

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Moreover, the game’s developers want to further incentivize its creators with real cash. At the moment, the studio wants to let creators earn the in-game currency (tokens) by selling their inventions and keys in their rooms. The studio promises that its creators will one day be able to support themselves by being a full-time Rec Room creator. Just how the studio plans on bringing that to reality, they haven’t said just yet.

Rec Room is available for free on PC, PS4, SteamVR headsets, PSVR, and Quest, however now the studio says it will also be coming to Xbox as well.

There’s no launch date there yet, however would-be Rec Roomies can sign up for the studios newsletter for the latest updates. Just as with its upcoming Xbox release, all versions of Rec Room include universal cross-play.

Update (1:30 PM ET): A previous version of this article referred to the developers by their old name (Against Gravity), however we’ve been told that this name is no longer in use, and has been replaced simply by Rec Room. We’ve replaced the name in the article to avoid any further confusion.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Ad

    which may have something to do with its launch on Oculus Quest in May 2019.

    It’s on phones now.

    • JB1968

      Yep, they totally missed the iOS version in the article.

      • Ad

        Phones are clearly a massive part of it, probably several times bigger than the quest impact to be honest. It’s a free phone game with social elements and maybe one of the best.

  • Ryan

    Paying creators could really create an explosion in high quality content. You can ship a multiplayer game on Quest, PCVR, PC, Playstation, iOS, and XBOX without any approvals, working within the constraints of Rec Room.

    • Ad

      It reminds me of Pavlov. I hope they give them more tools though, on a game logic slash player inventory level.

    • ComfyWolf

      I just hope it doesn’t turn out like Roblox, allowing creators to monetize their games in any way they want, Roblox is infested with tons of pay to win and gambling

  • Kudos to them, they made an amazing job

  • RJ

    Reckon Facebook will soon be buying RecRoom.

    • I get the impression that Rec Room isn’t for sale, so Facebook are building Horizon.

  • R3ST4RT

    Rec Room is one of my favorite VR games, especially because of the user created maps. I often go VR rock climbing with my friend and it’s an absolute blast. They’ve really gone above and beyond with their content and I hope they continue to grow.

  • Ad

    They need to work on some of the core systems. You can’t store objects, for example. It’s a game that feels very wide but not very tall and that will hurt it a lot.

    • Shawn Whiting

      You can store objects using the inventions system and easily bring them between rooms! Or create a room full of objects and make it a cloneable template if its something you’ll frequently want to start a new room with.

      “Inventions are publishable groups of Maker Pen objects, gadgets, and props. They allow players to share Maker Pen creations without publishing a whole Custom Room, to transport creations between rooms, and to organise groups of objects within a room.” https://rec-room.fandom.com/wiki/Inventions

      • Ad

        I joined the animal crossing room, started the bug catching game, and got a net. I had no apparent way to store it, which was annoying since there were ladders everywhere and I had to drop it to climb them.

  • Greyl

    It’s like the more polished version of VR Chat, which at the same time makes it worse. VR Chat’s charm is how much more freedom it allows – which can be dangerous/daunting in publics, but among friends VR Chat is a far more enjoyable experience than Rec Room.

    • ComfyWolf

      All my friends prefer Rec Room, although none of us care too much about custom avatars or acting like degenerates in public, we like all the games and leveling and items and all that. The tools for building custom rooms and games are easier to use as well. VR Chat is less about playing games and more about just chatting, which is great for people that just want to chat and hang out with friends, but we play Rec Room to actually play games together while hanging out.

      Plus VR Chat on the Quest is terrible, so anyone that has a Quest and can’t use Link doesn’t really have much of an option, Rec Room is just plain better on Quest, that will probably change with Quest 2 though.

    • ComfyWolf

      My friends prefer Rec Room, but that’s mainly down to it having a bigger focus on games than VR Chat, if all you want is to chat and hang out then VR Chat is great, but for playing games together Rec Room is definitely better.

      Plus VR Chat is terrible on Quest, so anyone with a Quest and no Link doesn’t have much of a choice.

      • Greyl

        The horror maps in VR Chat are definitely much better than anything made in Rec Room, and fantastic with friends. But yes, in terms of social interaction and actual user expression, where your avatar can basically be anything you want, has excellent support for full body, etc, VR Chat is obviously much better compared to the kiddy aesthetic of Rec Room. And no one cares about VR Chat on Quest anyway; that said, Quest supports a much wider array of compatible Link cables now.

  • Nugzy

    Wish they’d make some new quests.

  • Soundwave

    What a very unpleasant experience I had on RecRoom. It’s almost certainly not designed for my age group. I just wanted to play a ten-pin bowling game on PSVR but there don’t seem to be any offline alternatives.