According to a new study from Canalys that is a market analyst firm, it has now been found that the sales of virtual reality headsets that are high-end as compared to the previous quarter have for the very first time exceeded just over a million units. And among that huge number, almost half are accounted to be just PlayStation VR headsets, with Oculus Rift units that are on the contrary following up with a market share that is just over 20-percent.

With almost 16 percent of all headsets that are sold, The HTC Vive platform now brings up the rear. And alongside, Sony’s PlayStation VR also as mentioned before, is known to have accounted for almost half of all sales that took place. With such a number accounting to more than a million virtual reality headsets that were sold in the third quarter of 2017, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive not backing off were also seen to follow the same from a distance. And among it all, it was the post PlayStation VR that still dominates third-quarter VR headset sales.

Adding on further, The third quarter of the present year has been recorded to have seen the biggest growth in top-tier VR till date, even though in the mainstream gaming space acceptance of virtual reality has been slower than what some had predicted, the sales can be seen to still continue to grow month by month. Also, During that three-month period, where there was a sale of more than a million VR headsets, almost half of those were found to be just PSVR units.

Now, moving out of the study that was conducted by Canalys, the data that has been provided that is at least partially driven by recent price cuts are said to show a healthy growth in the industry. Where, in the Black Friday sales With the Oculus Rift being discounted to ($400 -$350) and the HTC Vive on the same hand also squeezing its price down to $600 for its hardware, bundle, top-tier virtual reality. It is all now more affordable than it has ever been!

“In the consumer segment, VR adoption is highly dependent on price, and the strategy of Oculus’ that involves the lowering prices has definitely helped drive adoption,” said Vincent Thielke who is a Canalys Research Analyst. He also went on to further highlight how the Oculus Go and HTC Vive Focus that are the upcoming, affordable, midrange headsets, may turn out to serve in order to expand the market even more in the months that are to come.

Canalys is also captivated by the potential of new entries in the marketplace of Virtual Reality that includes headsets which support Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform. There are also new VR headsets in the list and from the likes of Pimax, it can be made out about the impact it has left as they raise the bar for what high-end consumer virtual reality is capable of delivering to all its users.

An absence that was notable from this latest study, however, was concerned basically with the entry-level VR headsets. The Samsung Gear VR, and even more economical devices like the Google Cardboard that is a VR platform developed by Google for use with a Smartphone and a head mount and its counterparts, are in the list still as the most popular VR headsets. Even though they lack many of the features of their higher-end counterparts, they are much more in the count, and have numbered in the millions at last count.

Cover Picture Reference: UploadVR