SuperData: Sony Sold 375,000 PlayStation VR Units in Q1 2017; Outpacing HTC Vive and Oculus Rift Combined

Tyler Fischer May 9, 2017 6:54 PM EST

Sony continues to outpace its competitors according to SuperData.

Today, tracking firm SuperData revealed — via Games Industry — it’s estimates for how many units Sony, Oculus, and Valve shipped with each of their respective VR headsets in Q1 2017.

According to SuperData, Sony managed to sell another 375,000 PSVR units in Q1. Now, as of February 19, 2017 we know the PlayStation VR had officially sold 915,000 units (per Sony), which means it very well could have passed one million by the end of March, aka Q1.

SuperData is currently tracking the Sony headset to sell 2.6 million in 2017. Stephanie Llamas, head of VR/AR at SuperData SuperData adds:

“Sony has been more vocal about the PSVR being about VR, not games. They are working with companies for commercial applications, even though it is not the obvious first choice. But even the PlayStation is part of a larger effort to bring an entertainment ecosystem into the home – not just gaming experiences. They are going to the same route with the PSVR.”

Meanwhile, according to SuperData, despite a price cut the Oculus Rift couldn’t outsell the HTC Vive in Q1: with the Vive selling 95,000 and the Rift selling 64,000 units. For the full year, SuperData expects the Vive to sell 553,000 units, and the Rift to sell 346,000 units. According to Llamas, the success of the Vive is in part due to HTC’s open approach to the marketplace. She specifically says the following:

“It’s not about price. Facebook is a digital services company, not a hardware company. Oculus is a brand new OEM. The manufacturing challenges have proven enormous for them, forcing them to hire former Fitbit COO Hans Hartmann this time last year. But this plus bad press, their Zenimax lawsuit and closed ecosystem comes from their ‘Oculus first’ mentality, making it much harder for them to compete with HTC Vive, which has always been ‘VR first’. HTC Vive didn’t get as caught up in focusing on games either – they have long supported all aspects of VR development, so Oculus is behind them there.”