When we talk about virtual reality, the first thing that comes to our mind are tech-giant companies such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. These two have been dominating the tech industry with their cool gadgets and tools exposing us to the one-of-a-kind virtual reality experience. We get to see those fantasies and ethereal scenarios in video games coming to life thanks to VR.
However, it seems their competition war won't stop any time soon. And as their VR battle continues to heat up, mostly since for the first time ever, the Oculus Rift defeated the HTC Vive when it comes to hardware!
According to the Steam Hardware Survey, in February, Oculus Rift headset usage in the Steam community increased by up to 47.31%. It's around 2% higher than HTC Vive's 45.3% yield. Even if the percentage difference isn't that high, Oculus Rift considers this result as a huge success, especially since they had always been falling behind in ranking next to Vive ever since both companies launched their headsets in 2016. According to Upload VR, in January, Oculus Rift's ranking fell short by 0.9% compared to Vive.
Graph of Steam's VR Headset Usage
Surpassing Vive for the First Time
Steam headed the monthly survey monitoring its community members' tools, devices, and platforms they used. The survey revealed that more of its users and players moved to Oculus Rift for the past month. According to Oculus Rift, their Oculus app creation and Steam integration may have directly contributed to the increase in member usage, especially since Rift users can now easily log in and browse through the Steam community just by entering the app.
Beating Vive in Terms of Sales
Oculus Rift had already taken the first steps in stepping up their competition by beating Vive's price last month. It can be remembered that Oculus Rift lowered their price down to $400 for a headset with touch controllers bundle. This is significantly more affordable than Vive's $600 device. However, even though it's still trailing behind Vive's sales, Oculus Rift is already making a difference.
People can now purchase the Avail Oculus Rift Headset Bundle for Only $400
Furthermore, the results of this new survey motivate the Oculus Rift company to keep working hard and publish significant progress to finally beat Vive's sales and take over the VR industry. Oculus Rift was ecstatic about these significant results and the company promised to deliver more astounding features, innovative technologies, and exemplary customer service to generate more loyal customers.
Gaining their Costumers Back
Vive, on the other hand, welcomed the latest survey results as a challenge for the company to upgrade their services to gain their lost customers back. This significant fall in their ranking indicated that there may be some flaws in their system, so they will look into it and address the problem the soonest possible and upgrade their hardware and software features to meet their customer's demands.
Many believe that The HTC Vive Pro will be the most innovative VR Headset available on the market
In fact, Vive is now focusing on the release of their high-end and upgraded HTC Vive Pro, which will likely surpass Oculus Rift's display division. Vive won't likely lower their price to compete with Oculus yet, but they're hoping that the upcoming release of HTC Vive Pro will help sway their customers back and turn the tables and momentum to their favor.
