Valve has doubled its virtual reality headset’s sales after the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx.

SuperData XR reports that Valve Index has sold 149 thousand units in 2019. Okay, that’s not much, especially if we compare it with the PlayStation VR (Sony’s VR headset launched in 2016, and it sold more than five million units so far), but VR still has a long way to go, and it’s not a mainstream technology yet. We’d defend Valve Index’ performance by saying it launched in June, so selling ~150 thousand units in half a year isn’t that bad.

Let’s go back to the growing interest around the Valve Index: this product sold 46K units until the last quarter (so until September), and in Q4 2019, it sold 103K, making it quickly run out of stock on Steam as well. Why? The answer is simple: while Half-Life: Alyx will be supported by other VR headsets (Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest + Oculus Touch controller + link cable to PC, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality devices…), Valve Index will offer unique features in the game, such as finger tracking. Plus you’ll also get the adventure set between the first and second Half-Life games for free if you get the Valve Index…

In the previous quarter, the Valve Index was the best-selling PC VR headset, but two products beat its sales. The Oculus Quest (which is a standalone device, requiring no PC) sold 317K units (and a total of 705K in 2019 total), and the PlayStation VR has reportedly sold 338K units. SuperData XR expects a massive growth in the AR/MR (Augmented/Mixed Reality) market, reaching 6.7 billion dollars of revenue by 2023, consisting 45% of the XR market (AR + MR + VR), with VR taking the other 55%.

Half-Life: Alyx could be the kickstarter game for VR.

Source: WCCFTech

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