Quest App Downloads Decline by 27% Year-Over-Year as Meta Seeks to Boost Quest 3S Sales

Meta doesn’t often give us the nitty-gritty on how many VR headsets they’re moving off the shelves, but we have a few tricks to get a sense of their popularity. One neat way is to check out the download stats for their Meta Horizon app, which anyone with a Meta headset needs to get things going. This app is your starting point on both Android and iOS devices.

According to some insights from independent analyst Omdia, shared by Game Developer and reported by Forbes, the number of Meta Horizon app downloads took a noticeable dive on Christmas Day 2024, dropping by 27% versus the same day in 2023. Historically, Christmas sees the highest number of downloads.

A chart from Omdia and Sensor Tower plots significant milestones in Meta’s headset journey. It highlights the launch of the Quest 2 in October 2020 and its record-breaking sales in the following year. It also marks the release of Quest 3 in October 2023, and more recently, the Quest 3S in October 2024.

To note, the Quest 3S is Meta’s latest mixed reality gadget that combines the Quest 3’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset with full-color mixed reality capabilities. However, it also uses the older screens and bulkier Fresnel lenses from Quest 2. It’s a solid choice if your budget is only $300, but if you can stretch to $500, the Quest 3 is a better buy.

Now, while the chart gives us some interesting insights, it doesn’t paint the complete picture. It doesn’t factor in re-downloads, app updates, or people downloading it on multiple devices tied to one iOS or Google Play account. Likewise, it skips users who’ve upgraded to a new Quest device, like moving from a Quest 2 to a Quest 3S.

The folks at Game Developer point out other elements that might muddle the connection between app downloads and actual headset sales. Factors like second-hand headset sales, people sharing headsets among friends or family, or even non-headset owners downloading the app to explore the app store play into this.

When you dig deeper into the retail scene, particularly third-party sellers, you can glean more clues. Based on Amazon product page data, Game Developer reveals Meta sold over 160,000 Quest devices throughout November 2024 across eight different countries. That’s a 16% dip in Amazon sales compared to the previous year. Interestingly, two-thirds of these sales were the Quest 3S, while the rest were the regular Quest 3.

Yet, despite these numbers, the Quest 3S snagged its rightful place as the top-selling console on Amazon US in 2024, outperforming notables like the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 Pro, and both the revamped Xbox Series S and X.

However, the small drop in downloads and Amazon sales might hint at waning excitement compared to the raging Quest 2 days. After the Quest 2 debuted, Meta saw a surge in app downloads, more than doubling them the year after launch and tripling around the subsequent Christmas.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Meta fuels the Quest 3 and Quest 3S this year, especially with the holiday season approaching. They’re certainly trying to sweeten the deal, offering a $50 discount on the largest Quest 3S model (256GB), bringing it down to $350. Plus, they’re throwing in a free copy of the highly-acclaimed Batman: Arkham Shadow and a three-month trial of Quest+, their game subscription service.

So, are these shifts a sign that the VR market is hitting a slow patch, or are consumers just changing what they want? One thing is clear, though: Meta’s Quest line still stands tall as a powerhouse in consumer VR. But who knows, maybe changes are on the horizon, and Google surely hopes its innovations will steal some of that spotlight.