PlayStation VR headset sales reach 1 million

PlayStation VR

Sony has now sold more than one million PlayStation VR headsets, having launched the virtual reality devices in October.

Speaking to the BBC, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Atsushi Morita, said sales had “exceeded our expectations”.

The news comes after president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Andrew House, told the New York Times earlier this year that Sony was on track to hit the million unit milestone by mid-April, despite supply issues.

Last week research firm IDC said that 2.3 million augmented and virtual reality headsets were shipped in the first quarter of 2017, and forecast triple-digit growth for the full year.

In Q1, IDC estimated that Sony had shipped 429,000 PlayStation VR units and took 18.8% of the VR and AR headset market – second behind first place Samsung, which held 21.5% of the market.

“The VR market is still very young and consumers seem to be taking a cautious approach,” said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers.

“With plenty of headset options already in the market and even more coming soon, hardware isn’t the issue. The bigger challenge is the slow growth in content that appeals to a mass audience, combined with the confusion associated with a lack of cross-platform support.”