Meta has sold 20 million Quest units
According to Alex Heath’s report, a very reliable source, Meta has problems with retention in their ecosystem. Mark Rabkin, Meta’s vice president for VR hosted a presentation that showed some interesting information about Quest sales and retention problems within the Quest platform.
Reportedly, Meta has sold about 20 million Quest units to date, which are Quest 1, Quest 2, and Quest Pro. That can seem like a huge success for Meta, but with the fact that the majority of hardware was sold at the loss, and Meta didn’t make any money off this hardware, they hoped to get people engaged and loyal to the platform, therefore buying games and apps, etc. But it didn’t happen.
Rabkin in the meeting said:
“We need to be better at growth and retention and resurrection. We need to be better at social and actually make those things more reliable, more intuitive so people can count on it.”
It clearly shows that Meta sees their core problems. The hardware, mostly of course, isn’t the problem – the real problem is the software, which the Quest platform is lacking.
Reasons for Low Retention Rates in Meta
Rabkin about retention in Quest platform:
“Right now, we’re on our third year of Quest 2. And sadly, the newer cohorts that are coming in, the people who bought it this last Christmas, they’re just not as into it as the ones who bought it early.”
At first glance, it doesn’t make sense. Meta Quest 2 will be a third-year-old device soon, which means that there are more games and apps available than when it was first released. This should mean that players have more content to enjoy and will spend more time with the device.
However, the problem is that there are no new games on Quest that can keep people engaged. This is an issue that Meta needs to solve as soon as possible. Even the best headset in the world, with the most revolutionary technology inside, is useless without good software, in this case, new games and applications.
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that Meta wants to release 41 new games (VR and MR) on the quest platform with the release of Meta Quest 3. This could revitalize the software offerings for the platform. Additionally, Meta Quest 3 is rumored to have a much more powerful chipset, which will allow platforms like Roblox to make it into the Quest store, alongside the games like GTA San Andres or Fortnite VR, which Meta hinted at the possibility of releasing. It is highly possible that Meta was just waiting for new hardware to power these games.
