February 27th, 2017

Sony Playstation VR still in short supply but sold over 900k

Sony (SNE) announced that its Playstation VR headset, which was released in October 2016, has sold a cumulative 915,000 units[1] since its release, despite the manufacturing shortages the company has been facing.   Working off a base of 53.4m Playstation 4 units worldwide, the number of developers for the VR platform has increased to 360, with more than 220 software titles and content in development, and a total of 100 new titles to be released this year.  Currently there are ~100 titles available worldwide.

Estimates for unit volumes for VR units are for ~9m units this year, rising to 50m in 2020[2], although it would seem most VR brands have underestimated demand and are facing similar shortages as the display industry finds it footing in what was a nascent market a year or two ago.  Once the hardware side comes into balance, much of the dollar value in the VR industry will come from software, which is estimated to account for ~60% of $70b in total VR sales  in 2020.  Total VR revenue is estimated at $1.8B in 2016.  Samsung, with its Gear VR dominated unit volumes, both as a popular device, and as a give-away promotion with a number of high-end Samsung devices, particularly the Galaxy smartphone line.

[1] As estimated by Sony Interactive Entertainment

[2] Trendforce 2016

Table 1 - VR 2016 Units & Share - Source: Superdata 2017