PlayStation VR Sales Are 915,000 Units Worldwide

In an interview at his Silicon Valley office on Friday, Mr. House revealed PlayStation VR’s sales for the first time, saying consumers had purchased 915,000 of the headsets as of Feb. 19, roughly four months after it went on sale.

SOURCE

Before calling it a success or failure, it is important to note that the device is apparently supply constrained- Sony didn't believe it would sell much, and didn't make many as a result.

There are plenty of people who are skeptical about virtual reality, a technology some have heralded as the biggest thing to come along in years in games and entertainment.

Even Andrew House, global chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the video game division of the Japanese electronics giant, had doubts about how quickly virtual reality would be embraced by the mass market. So when Sony needed to decide how many of a new virtual reality headset to manufacture, Mr. House was among those inside the company advising that Sony make fewer of them.

“It’s the classic case in any organization — the guys who are on the front end in sales are getting very excited, very hyped up,” Mr. House said. “You have to temper that with other voices inside the company, myself among them, saying let’s just be a little bit careful.”

It turns out Mr. House was too cautious.

Moreover, it sounds like it is on pace to beat Sony's expectations:

Sony’s internal goal was to sell one million of the headsets in its first six months, by mid-April. The company will almost certainly surpass that forecast. “You literally have people lining up outside stores when they know stock is being replenished,” said Mr. House, describing the scene in Japan, one of the largest games markets.

Mr. House said the supply of PlayStation VR headsets will improve by April. By fall, Sony expects to begin selling them in Latin America.

This also makes the PSVR the market leader for VR:

Sony’s primary competitors, Oculus from Facebook and HTC, have not disclosed sales of their premium headsets. One research firm, SuperData Research, estimates there were 243,000 Oculus Rift headsets and 420,000 HTC Vive headsets sold by the end of last year.

What is your take on this? I want one, but I am waiting for more game support...

PSVR is not going to succeed. VR is us exceptionally niche.

That's good.

The issue is that i have zero trust in sony supporting this in the long run.

Also wish they'd stop buying timed exclusivity for the thing. Instead they closed down Cambridge and RIGS.

As for the VIVE/Oculus numbers, i'm not putting much faith in superdata.

Its successful, close to a million sales is good for a product like this. Sony is happy.

The only thing i find even remotely interesting in VR.

vr is in it's infancy. ofcourse it's niche

And without practically any software. Sounds like a Sony hardware product.

Sony expected 2.5 million within the first 3 months.

Flop.

Link?

The initial projection from Sony was 2.5m, that needs to be in the OP

It does have Resident Evil 7...

The NY Times report says Sony expected a million sold through to April

I think you guys are talking about this: http://www.psu.com/news/31311/psvr-sales-

This was not Sony's estimate, this was an estimate made by SuperData. I can't seem to find any official estimates directly from Sony.

Noted.............especially for the next time SuperData are taken and run with.................like the inital estimates were on this board.

He's not saying SuperData isn't accurate (heck, I put SuperData estimates for Oculus and Vive in the OP myself), but that Sony themselves never made an estimate publicly.

Now that we have official projections from Sony, we don't need to use third party estimates- third party estimates are generally always only used in light of a lack of official figures.

Shame about the lack of games. Most are too short and feel like tech demos. Resident Evil 7 and Dirt Rally are the only ones I thought were worth it.

I get that.

My point was that people (we know who) used the SuperData's initial estimates to create hype threads (and many duplicates for weeks) about the sales, and how it was going to blow everything away,etc. (you know how this board is).

My point is that..............if we use those numbers as ownage, or as hype, or as proof that there was interest or guage for success......how can we then ignore those numbers now?

Superdata is usually spot on with their estimates and are used regularly here.

Im not sure why, all of a sudden, we are to sit aside those estimates being cut so much.......when they were used as ammo before.

Resident Evil 7 is so far the only reason I want one

On my part, I am drawing a clear delineation between sales figures and projections- sales figures are tangible things that any entity so inclined to can estimate or track down for any bit of hardware and software on the market. SuperData, being a market research firm, can definitely do this.

Projections are internal targets for a company- this is not something that can be estimated, and there is nothing to base an estimate off of (unlike with sales, where you can extrapolate from a sample, if nothing else). SuperData have no factual basis to be able to claim that Sony's internal projections for PSVR sales were anything- but if we were lacking official data, SuperData is what we would go by (as indeed people have for PSVR since October so far). Now that we do have official data, we don't need to estimate projections.

I agree SuperData is spot on with sales estimates- because, again, sales estimates are tangible, actual things that can be tracked and verified. Not the case with internal company projections.

Better than I expected. I want one to have.

Lol, one game worthwhile for the thing that isn't a glorified tech demo. Whatever helps you justify your purchase mate.

While close to a million units sold I would call a success imo, given the very niche nature of the product currently, Sony's track record of not supporting any peripheral long-term that they release is against them.

@svaubel: I don't actually have a PSVR yet. RE7 was the first game that made me want one, but the money went towards a Switch instead.

That is good and good news for VR in general.

Sony needs to stop paying for VR exclusivity though. Waste of money and it pisses people off.

TLHBR! That's how you make a successful peripheral lems, not shoving it down your throats like M$ tried to do with PoS kinect on you.

Solid numbers. I bet Sony is really happy with these numbers. With 4 months in the market they've already outsold Oculus and Vive combined while being supply constrained. This is great news for VR and with more games coming and supply getting better these numbers will only get better.

I'm impressed they sold that many given the $400 asking price for an accessory. Good on them. I'm still waiting for a significant price drop.

hey that pretty good... for a gimmick no one was asking for and is extremely niche and expensive

VR in general for gaming is not gonna succeed.

Its gonna be like motion controls and motion cameras were. Cool for a little while, some people will want it, but ultimately it wont have any real impact and go away

So it might get a second relevant game? Sounds awesome!

Huh. When you consider the asking price (as much as a brand new PS4 Pro for example), the still fairly "weak" software offer (minus a couple of legit good ones like RE7) I think they're doing fine. Granted, it's not setting the world on fire or anything, but it shows that there IS an audience for this sort of experience on consoles, which is a net positive for all the people investing in VR on that front.

20 million

You can't tell us your projections after you're saying the numbers... Obviously they'll always be good then.

Respectable in my mind, seeing how tepid the market has been toward VR. I will definitely be buying a VR headset down the line, but I haven't the income nor the free time to justify doing so yet. The PS4 Pro's and Switch's releases certainly don't help - I'm still waiting to see if they can validate their worth, because if so those would come first.

This is what I've been saying for a while. Sony sold through 750,000 PSVR units in the last quarter of last year, so it is only logical that they are approaching a million now. It is also only logical that they were waiting to announce sales numbers until they came close to that magic number of a million. PSVR is a success, and now we have proof.

On a personal note, I picked up mine a couple weeks ago. Got the Until Dawn bundle. I can confidently say the thing is freakin amazing. It turns even average games into a TON of fun. I didn't even like racers before; with the PSVR I love them. I didn't like kiddie platformers before; with the PSVR I love them. As far as games go, there are a bunch of really good ones right now, and many on the way. A ton of developers are working on content as we speak. Some standouts:

RE7 (obviously)

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (great on-rails action)

EVE (awesome space shooter)

Rez Infinite (hypnotic experience)

Thumber (VR acid trip)

Drive Club VR (yes, it is great arcade fun--just beware of motion sickness until you're used to the game)

Dirt Rally VR (AWESOME rally racer, very difficult)

Mervils (great platformer, rpg lite with a lot of content--the visuals are crap, but the world is very fun to explore)

Here They Lie (very creepy, very atmospheric)

....and a bunch of others. Also, as said, many upcoming, including Farpoint, Syren, Arizona Sunshine, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Dying: Reborn, Golem, GNOG, Starblood Arena, Megaton Rainfall, Ace Combat, Xing: The Land Beyond, Obduction, Unknown Fate......and a lot more.

And then there are the.....other uses for the headset. (....I won't go there....)

Remember, don't knock it til you try it. The PSVR is a great device. With sales going well, more developers are going to fall in line.

20 million on an useless gimmick. That's not success, that's a rip off and even more when you shove it down people's throats. At least VR makes some games better.

Kinect sold better. Look how that turned out.

I want to buy one, despite it being the worst of the big 3 main VR systems. But TBH not ONE SINGLE good game is coming out for it (sure if you like to play in the star trek universe)

People didn't need to buy it, and it's not useless. Cows are having a meltdown due to bad VR sales...

LOL kinect not useless?? you're a serial denialist, no wonder you're a lem. And PSVR sold better than any other VR system so...

Because modern gamepads don't contain gyroscopes.

So PSVR has like 90% of the gaming vr market

50%

@dakur: FastRobby is a well known clown.

? His butthurt with PSVR's success is off the charts.

Kinect sold 24 million this sold less than million an people are claiming its a success but the Kinect a failure. OK>

@charizard1605: My take is the supply constrained part is bullshit. Wasn't long ago when Hirai addressed VR and denied to release sales figures, where he said they knew it would be a slow start. He commented that some places sold out. "Some" obviously does not equate to ALL. The Gamestop on 5th Ave, 54 st in Brooklyn has plenty PSVR in store. My buddy Jeremy is always trying to get me to buy one when I go in.

@Pedro: lol Kinect was a wild success on 360 when it launched unfortunately it was shit for gaming and that's why it ultimately flopped on the Xbone. PSVR is infinitely better than Kinect when it comes to gaming applications. Its continued growth and success will not only benefit gaming but also benefit education, entertainment, and business.

So the kinect was 400 dollars? Didn't think so..REKT

So everything is selling like shit...

I use my kinect daily. Thank you Microsoft

If FastRobby's butthurt were xbone sales, M$ would have owned the lifetime sales of Sony, Nintendo and PC all together.

LOL was thinking the same thing. The reason Kinect was included in X1 at launch was it sold 20 million units on 360, you know when it was a separately marketed peripheral. Err duh.

Agreed on the projections. Big talk expecting 1 million by April when you're more than 90% there in Feb.

That doesn't say much about it not being useless. First, you're a lem so you have nothing worthwhile to play and second, you're a lem so you also have awful taste.

@cainetao11: You're wrong bro. PSVR is still hard to find in certain regions. In japan it sells out within minutes of stores getting supplies. There are reports of hundreds of people lining up outside for 20 units, its pretty well documented.

Nope. My point was it wasn't always a shoe horned in peripheral. It was a separate thing unlike dildo brain alluded to.

As for its usefulness to gaming, watching my nephew and his cousins laugh and enjoy it since Fable Journey, Child of Eden, Kinect Sports, Fantasia and watching girls dance and jiggle to Dance Central at my buddy Rob's parties has made its existence justified to me. But life is subjective after all.