Quest 3 Reaches One Million Users and Quest 2 Goes Out of Stock
According to data gathered from First Encounters, over one million users have completed their introductory experience on the Quest 3.
When you buy and set up a new Quest 3 headset, you’re prompted to complete First Encounters. The post-set up app shows off the Quest 3’s 3D scene mesh capabilities and sees you shooting parts of your real surroundings and in-app creatures to score points.
This feature is new to Meta headsets, meaning the data only comes from Quest 3 users.
Software developer Daven Bigelow has kept an eye on the numbers of participants joining the First Encounters leaderboard. Although Meta have not released any sales data for the Quest 3, Bigelow has noted that over a million users have ranked their scores within the system.
Although there are a million users on the leaderboard, there may be more Quest 3 users out there. You don’t technically have to complete First Encounters. Users can skip the prompts to scan their room mesh or opt out of the process at any step of the way.
It’s also not known whether anyone who has their profile’s set to private will appear in this one million user figure. Quest 3 sales could then be much higher still.
Meta Provides Hazy Sales Stats
Back in 2023, a Meta roadmap meeting was leaked to The Verge. In it, Mark Rabkin, Meta’s VP of VR informed his own team that almost 20 million Quest headsets had been sold.
A few months later, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly quoted sales had reached “tens of millions”.
Back in July 2021, Andrew Bosworth stated that the Quest 2 had “outsold not just its predecessor, but all of its predecessors combined” meaning that we can assume most of the 20 million headsets sold by the summer of 2023 were Quest 2.
But since the Quest 3 launched last year, it’s only sold around a million units, compared to three years worth of Quest 2 sales reaching nearly 20 million.
Although this may prompt questions about why this is the case, the answers are quite simple. The Quest 2 hit the shelves at a much lower price than the Quest 1, so when the second generation headset launched, its predecessor was retired.
The Quest 3 launched at a much higher price than the Quest 2, and a series of reductions saw the second generation headset fly off the shelves over Christmas 2023 and the early part of this year.
With both generations remaining on sale, they naturally split Quest sales. But since Meta don’t supply sales data, new user stats have to be drawn from sources like third-party game or app developers or major retailers.
Many of the first time Quest owners in 2024 have reportedly been Quest 2 users as sales of the older device have outsold that of the Quest 3 on platforms such as Amazon.
The Quest 2 May Retire Soon
The news of Quest 3’s sales coincides with reports that the Quest 2 has sold out in the United States. For the last few months, the 256 GB model has been “sold out” everywhere. Now it’s the turn of the 128 GB model.
But although the Quest 2 is no longer available in the US, UK buyers can still get one from Meta, Amazon, and other stockists.
There is lots of speculation that the Quest 3S is due for release later this year. This more affordable headset will likely replace the Quest 2, giving users the mixed reality experience and processing power as the Quest 3 with some of the more budget-friendly materials from the Quest 2.
Once released, the more affordable Quest 3S, or “Lite”, may sell greater numbers far quicker than the Quest 3 has so far. Watch this space for more news.
