PlayStation VR2 launch sales may be outpacing original PSVR1 headset

Sony's PlayStation VR2 headset has sold an estimated 300,000 units, which isn't terrible performance when compared to the original PSVR1 headset.

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Reports indicate that Sony's PlayStation VR2 is failing to gain traction in the gaming market. According to IDC analyst figures reported by Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki, the PSVR2 has sold around 300,000 units in its first month on the market. Video game news outlets have responded to the news with reports that the PSVR2 is selling poorly, leading to doom and gloom coverage of the VR market.

IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo even went so far to say that Sony may need to cut prices to avoid total disaster: "I suspect a price cut on the PSVR2 will be needed to avoid a complete disaster of their new product."

However, data released by Sony appears to indicate otherwise. Taking a quick look at Sony's PlayStation VR sales, we see that the original PSVR1 sold 915,000 units in the first five months since launch (October 2016 - February 2017). The PSVR2, however, managed to sell 300,000 units in its first month of availability. In a single month, the PSVR2 has already sold 1/3rd of the PSVR1's 5-month unit sales. This is also significant considering the PS4's installed base had significantly outpaced the PS5's installed base when each of the VR headsets had launched, and that the PSVR2 is more expensive with a $549 price tag.

We can't get a complete comparison because it is hard to know exactly how many units the PSVR1 sold in its first month on the market.

Though we can make a rough estimation of attach rates based on the headset unit sales weighed against the appropriate sell-in figures provided by Sony.

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If the PSVR2 sold 300,000 units, and Sony has sold at least 32.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles, then the headset's attach rate is around 0.9%.

The attach rate is likely lower because the PS5 figures are based on data as of holiday 2022 and does not include the PS5s sold in the Jan - March 2023 period that coincides with the PSVR2's launch.

So what about the original PSVR1? What kind of attach rate did it have in a similar period? We can't determine that exactly because the first PSVR1 sales figures that Sony had released include the first 5 months of sales; from October 2016 to February 2017, Sony had confirmed the PSVR1 sold 915,000 units worldwide.

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Based on the above data, we can determine an attach rate for the PSVR1 for this period. Our data shows that sold had sold a total of 57.3 million PS4s through Q3 FY16, which coincides with the PSVR1's October 2016 launch. Therefore the PSVR1 would have an attach rate of 0.15% after five months of sales.

The PSVR2 is almost at a 0.1% attach rate after a month of sales, granted the PS5 install base is a lot less than the PS4's install base during the original HMD's release, but the PSVR2's rate of sales isn't terrible when compared to its predecessor.