Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset Preorders 5 Times the Original

By: Nick Gambino

The Oculus Quest was launched last year as Facebook’s first truly standalone VR headset that didn’t require a heavy-duty PC to power it. Now the follow-up, the eagerly awaited Oculus Quest 2, is blowing away preorder expectations, racking up more than 5 times the sales of the original.

“I’ve been very impressed and excited by the progress that our teams have made on this,” Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call for Facebook. “I think that the new product is extraordinary. I love using it. And I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done there.”

One of the biggest selling points of the new Quest is the price point. It is coming in significantly cheaper than the original VR headset, $100 cheaper to be specific. The $299 starting point is most likely the reason we’re seeing so many preorders, alongside the ease of use.

This is all a ploy to make VR more mainstream, something that has eluded most companies dabbling or going all-in on the immersive technology. When the Rift launched a few years back, the hefty price tag and tech specs needed excluded many consumers from partaking. After Facebook acquired Oculus, they began making moves to fix this problem. The Quest 2 is the newest attempt at doing just that.

Facebook, like most tech giants are dipping their toes in all the waters, with Zuckerberg also making mention of their strides forward in creating consumer-friendly AR glasses.

“[They are] the holy grail of delivering a sense of presence while not taking you away from the physical world,” the Facebook CEO said during the call. “We’re working on the building blocks for true consumer AR glasses.”

Third-party content creators are also seeing a ton of new users showing up to download content as they ready for the new standalone VR headset.

I’m still a big believer in VR, even if it hasn’t yet shown its full potential. By scaling back the requirements and working to bring the price down to something more affordable by the average Joe or Jane, I think we’ll see more consumers embracing it, forcing it further into the public consciousness.