While both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets have already been released on the market earlier this year, it may take a while before the future of VR becomes clearer. As yet, the technology is too new to tell whether or not it will change the world of gaming, and considering the relatively high-end hardware requirements and the costly price tag accompanied by either one of the two headsets, the adoption rate for VR doesn’t actually reflect the number of consumers who would want to own a VR headset under different circumstances. But regardless, one of the main factors contributing to the success or failure of a new gaming platform lies in the library of games it has to offer at launch and shortly after. This should be no different for VR, which is why ArsTechnica recently gathered bits of information from Steam in order to estimate which HTC Vive games are the most popular among early adopters.
HTC Vive titles are available through Steam, which is unsurprising given the fact that the headset was created by HTC in collaboration with Valve. In any case, because HTC Vive games are distributed via Steam, ArsTechnica was able to gather data from the platform and estimate which HTC Vive titles have become the most popular since the headset’s release. The list includes VR titles that require the HTC Vive Lighthouse controllers, as well as games that can be played with both Lighthouse and standard controllers. However, games that don’t support the HTC Vive controllers and can only be played on gamepads / keyboards + mice have not been included. Furthermore, it should be noted that the HTC Vive is bundled with three free VR games, namely Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraption, and Tilt Brush, so the aforementioned games are bound to enjoy additional playtime on this basis alone. Furthermore, some data may not be too accurate due to the fact that certain Steam users may have already downloaded certain HTC Vive titles on their computers even though they don’t yet own the VR headset. Last but not least, the data may have also be skewed by the fact that some HTC Vive titles have been unofficially ported to the Oculus Rift, and perhaps even by VRidge beta testers.
All that being said, according to estimates from ArsTechnica, The Lab has the largest number of owners on Steam (roughly 81,200), followed by Surgeon Simulator VR and Heaven Island Life. The latter seems to be the most played HTC Vive title on Steam, clocking in at a total of 61,200 hours of play time. Lastly, it appears that the most popular paid HTC Vive title is Audioshied, with estimated total revenues of ~$542,000 as of May 6. The second most-purchased HTC Vive game is Space Pirate Trainer, followed by Hover Junkers which costs $34.99, and Final Approach for $24.99.
