VR sales 'showing no signs of slowing' hit 1 million units in Q3

Virtual reality headset sales were “showing no signs of slowing” as they hit a remarkable 1 million units in the third quarter, with the top three vendors Sony, HTC and Oculus taking dominant shares in the market, said researcher Canalys in a report.

The market was “showing no signs of slowing” and sales touched 1 million units in the quarter — the first time quarterly sales had breached that million figure. Sony led when it shipped more than 490,000 PlayStation VR (PS VR) sets in the third quarter, followed by Oculus with sales of 210,000 units of Rift and HTC with 60,000 Vive VR units sold. Collectively, the three vendors made up 86 percent of the total market, according to Canalys.

Sony said that four domestic games, including VR titles, will debut next month on its PS platform, Sony China told Shanghai Daily. 

HTC also announced that it would set up a VR open platform for easy mobile VR content development for third-party partners such as Chinese firms like 360Qiku, Baofengmojing, iQiyi and Pico.

In 2018, the global VR headset market is expected to gain a “sizeable boost” from new entrants supporting Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform. VR can also be applied to many industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and education, said Canalys in the report