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Meta, known for its secretive nature regarding headset sales, leaves us to piece together clues about its platform’s popularity. One such hint comes from tracking new downloads of its essential companion app, Meta Horizon, which is available on Android and iOS devices.
According to independent analyst Omdia’s data featured by Game Developer and shared through Forbes, the Meta Horizon app saw a 27% decline in downloads on Christmas Day 2024 compared to the previous year, a day traditionally marking the app’s annual download peak.
The chart provided by Omdia and Sensor Tower highlights significant moments in Meta’s Quest product timeline, including the October 2020 launch of Quest 2 and its subsequent record-breaking sales, as well as the releases of Quest 3 in October 2023 and the Quest 3S in October 2024.
Speaking of Quest 3S, it’s Meta’s latest mixed reality headset, incorporating Quest 3’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset along with full-color mixed reality features, while maintaining Quest 2’s older screens and heavier Fresnel lenses. With a $300 price tag, Quest 3S offers great value, though we still suggest opting for Quest 3 if your budget stretches to $500.
However, the story doesn’t end there. The aforementioned chart doesn’t account for factors like re-downloads, app updates, or downloads on new devices linked to existing iOS/Google Play accounts. It also overlooks when users add new devices to their accounts, such as upgrading from Quest 2 to Quest 3S.
Game Developer points out other considerations, such as second-hand headset sales, shared usage among multiple users, and non-owners downloading the app just to browse the app store, which could all dilute the direct correlation between app downloads and headset sales.
In the absence of official stats from Meta, third-party retailers provide another angle. Data mined from Amazon product pages indicates that Meta sold over 160,000 Quest headsets in November 2024 across eight countries. Nonetheless, this figure is a 16% drop from the previous year’s sales on Amazon. Two-thirds of these headsets were Quest 3S, with the remaining being Quest 3.
Despite the dip, Quest 3S emerged as the top-selling console on Amazon US in 2024, surpassing the Switch, PlayStation 5 Pro, and the latest Xbox Series S and X refreshes.
These decreases in app downloads and Amazon sales figures point to waning interest compared to the surge in the Quest 2 era, which set remarkably high benchmarks. Omdia’s data shows Meta more than doubled overall app downloads within a year post-Quest 2 launch, and almost tripled them during the next Christmas season.
As we look ahead, it remains to be seen how aggressively Meta will push Quest 3 and Quest 3S, and what exclusive games might emerge to shift consumer interest, especially as we head towards the holiday season. To incentivize purchases, Meta has slashed the price of the Quest 3S 256GB model by $50, now available for $350, coupled with a free copy of the acclaimed Batman: Arkham Shadow and a three-month Quest+ subscription trial.
Whether these trends hint at a VR market ceiling or a shift in consumer focus is up for debate, but what’s clear is that Meta’s Quest lineup still leads the charge in the VR space. The question remains, however, could this dominance be on the brink of change? Google is certainly hoping so.
