Samsung VR Headset Shipped More Than All Others Combined

The growth of Virtual Reality in 2016 is undeniable with over £1.44 billion in revenue over the past year according to a report published by research firm SuperData. This comprised of over 6.3 million VR headset devices shipped and the overwhelming chunk of that VR pie belonged to Samsung with over 4.51 million. This makes it the most shipped VR headset last year; more than all other headsets from Vive, Oculus and Sony combined. Sony’s PlayStation VR came a distant second with over 750,000 units while HTC’s Vive shipped almost half that at 420,000. Oculus Rift shipped a distant fourth with only 250,000 units.

It was the low requirement for mobile which gave Samsung the significant edge in terms of success over its competitors, especially before Google’s much affordable £69 DayDream View VR headset came out. Samsung also had the headstart by giving away hundreds of thousands of units bundled with S7 pre-orders ahead of everyone else.

In terms of non-mobile virtual reality headsets, PlayStation VR came out on top, flying off the shelves and outselling everything else. Although it also showed that Sony had problems with fulfilling orders and keeping up with demand. Games account for 44% of the virtual reality market in 2016 and it is expected to grow further this year.  HTC Vive has also shown that it is the device of choice for enterprise developers in 2016, with more than 400K in sales at the £689 price point.

The report further states that although actual playtime while wearing the VR headset is short (7 minutes on mobile and 12 minutes on high-end headsets), users used it several times a day with many reporting that it is used more than 50 times a month on average.