When it was first announced back in November, Half-Life: Alyx regenerated interest in Valve’s hit franchise. On top of that, however, it pushed impressive sales numbers for Valve’s virtual reality hardware.
New details from SuperData’s sales report for the fourth quarter of 2019 show that the Valve Index has seen its sales numbers double following the game’s announcement. During the period, sales reached 103,000 units, bringing the total to over 150,000 units sold since its initial launch in June.
The report noted that sales would have risen even higher if Valve had supply to meet up with demand since it was sold out during some of the holiday season. The company will likely prepare to have more in stock closer to Half-Life: Alyx’s arrival in March.
Keep in mind that Valve is giving the game away free to all Index owners, making it quite the incentive for some.
In its report, SuperData also made a note of which virtual reality headset performed the best for the quarter—the PlayStation VR. Sony’s console-themed gear managed to clear 338,000 units for the period, adding to its total of 4.2 million headsets sold from March 2019. Oculus Quest was close behind in second, with 317,000 units.
Whether Valve will keep releasing virtual reality games of this caliber isn’t known yet, as it’s likely to see how well Half-Life: Alyx is received. There’s a pretty good demand for it at the moment, and it currently has a ten percent discount on its pre-order page, which is a nice boost for those that don’t have an Index yet.
