Meta’s VR division Reality Labs still hasn’t announced how many Quest 2 headsets it has sold so far.

Too bad, actually. Because that would be a good way to measure the success of the new device, even if they don’t have exact numbers. What we do know, however, is that demand must have risen sharply recently. Because on Christmas Day 2021, the Oculus app reached the top of Apple’s app store charts for the first time, as a large amount of Quest 2 headsets were apparently given away, especially in the US.

Another rather amusing indication of how popular VR headsets are in general is that insurer Aviva saw a 31 percent increase in home claims involving VR headsets last year, and an overall increase of 68 percent since 2016. In 2021, the average claim for VR-related accidental damage was about $880. Most of the incidents involved broken television screens of the respective users of the headsets. A similar situation was seen at the time with the launch of Nintendo’s Wii and after the release of some new Nintendo Switch sports games. This year, Aviva has already had to handle a number of VR-related claims, and the company expects to add more throughout the year.

But that still doesn’t tell us how many VR headsets were sold by Meta. After all, not every user uses them to cause accidents and damage that insurers then have to settle. Of course not.

As for Meta’s Quest 2 headset, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon already guessed last November that Meta shipped about 10 million units of its latest VR headset.

Foto: Erik Mclean