Half-Life: Alyx triggers surge in new VR users on Steam
But number of Steam players with virtual reality headsets is still less than 2%
Virtual reality received a boost in the last two months thanks to the release of Half-Life: Alyx.
The April 2020 Steam Hardware Survey shows the number of users with a VR headset has increased by 0.62% to 1.91%, according to UploadVR.
The rise follows the launch of the VR-only Half-Life game on March 23.
While this means that the total number of VR users on Steam remains at less than 2%, headsets are on course to overtake the number of 4K primary monitors used within the next couple of months.
Valve announced in April 2019 that Steam has 90 million users, with UploadVR estimating that it will have reached 100 million in the past year. Taking both figures into account, this puts the number of VR users on Steam at between 1.7 million and two million.
By comparison, Sony confirmed at the end of 2019 that PlayStation VR has sold five million units worldwide.
HTC Vive remains the most popular headset, accounting for 26% of all VR devices used with Steam. This is follows by the Oculus Rift S at 22%.
However, the Oculus Quest saw a significant rise in new users, increasing by 3.14% since March's survey. This was the single biggest increase of any device, making the Quest the headset of choice for 6% of Steam's VR users.