Going by Steam’s hardware survey, it seems that Half-Life: Alyx wasn’t a breakthrough success to make virtual reality more of a mainstream product.

Before the launch of Half-Life: Alyx, nearly a million VR-headsets were connected to PCs, according to Steam’s hardware survey (which is optional and requires pretty much just two clicks to provide your data). After the launch of the new Half-Life title, it doubled to two million devices, meaning the new, VR-exclusive Valve game had some effect.

Yes, had: the new, September data is here, and there’s no such thing as a meteoric growth that was seen from March to April. The growth of VR technology has not accelerated, so we still cannot call the tech mainstream. Road to VR says that 2.6 million VR devices were connected to PCs. In July, the ratio of them was 1.91% in the Steam hardware survey, which dropped to 1.70% in August. We see an up-and-down trend (June had a 1.67% ratio, and September saw 1.88%.) There is no sustained growth to be seen here.

Still, we can’t jump to conclusions just yet. We should wait until the end of 2021 to see where VR evolves by then, and what the percentage will be. Let’s also not forget that the Valve Index, Gabe Newell’s VR device, had a shortage, plus there’s an upcoming global recession, which already has a financial uncertainty in action. (Plus now, we wait for the launch of the Xbox Series and the PlayStation 5.)

Even if not everybody participates in the Steam hardware survey, the ratio is small. It stuck between 1.5 and 2% for several months, and thus, we can say that virtual reality has yet to see a mainstream breakthrough. It needs to be cheaper, plus it needs to be available on older PCs to be accessible for many people.

Source: PCGamer

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