Quest App Downloads Fall 27% Year-Over-Year as Meta Looks to Boost Quest 3S Sales

Meta tends to keep its sales figures under wraps, particularly when it comes to its headsets. However, there are indirect ways to assess the popularity of its platform, like examining the number of fresh downloads for its essential companion app, Meta Horizon, which you can snag on Android and iOS devices.

Drawing on insights from independent analyst Omdia, as highlighted by Game Developer and referenced by Forbes, there’s been a notable dip in Meta Horizon app downloads—down 27% on Christmas Day 2024 compared to the same day in 2023. Historically, this day tends to see the app’s peak download figures each year.

The chart, sourced from Omdia via Sensor Tower, captures Meta’s significant Quest milestones, ranging from the Quest 2 launch in October 2020 and its subsequent record-breaking sales to the debut of the Quest 3 in October 2023, followed my Quest 3S release in October 2024.

It’s worth noting that the Quest 3S is Meta’s latest mixed reality headset, offering the Quest 3’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset and full-color mixed reality features while retaining the Quest 2’s older displays and heavier Fresnel lenses. If you’re on a budget and can only drop $300, the Quest 3S might suit your needs, though we still recommended opting for the Quest 3 at $500 for better value.

But the story isn’t entirely captured in those numbers. The chart misses out on re-downloads, app updates, or additional downloads onto new devices all linked to the same Apple/Google account. It also overlooks users who already own a Quest device and are adding an extra one to their account, like those upgrading from the Quest 2 to the Quest 3S.

Game Developer additionally mentions several other factors that could skew the direct correlation between app downloads and actual headset sales. These include secondhand purchases, device sharing, and non-owners installing the app just to scout the app store.

Without official figures, another useful metric comes from third-party retailers. According to data gleaned from Amazon product pages, as reported by Game Developer, Meta moved over 160,000 Quest units in November 2024 across eight countries. This figure represents a year-over-year decline of 16% in sales on Amazon. Of these, two-thirds were Quest 3S headsets, while the rest were Quest 3 models.

Interestingly, the Quest 3S emerged as the top-selling console on Amazon in the US for 2024, surpassing the Switch, PlayStation 5 Pro, and both the Xbox Series S and X hardware updates.

Despite this success, the downturn in app downloads and sales on Amazon might hint at diminishing enthusiasm when compared to the Quest 2 era, a time that set extraordinary benchmarks. Omdia’s figures highlight that Meta more than doubled the overall app downloads in the year after Quest 2’s launch and nearly tripled them by the next Christmas.

The big question now is how aggressively Meta will back the Quest 3 and Quest 3S and how many blockbuster (and potentially exclusive) games it can produce to stir excitement during the lead-up to this year’s holiday period. To boost Quest 3S sales, Meta has cut $50 off the price of the largest storage variant (256GB) for a limited time, now at $350. Alongside this, they’re offering a complimentary copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow—a fan-favorite—and a three-month trial of Quest+, their games subscription service.

Whether these developments hint at a stabilizing VR market or a shift in consumer focus is still open for debate, but one thing is certain: Meta’s Quest series remains a cornerstone in the consumer VR landscape.

Could this be changing? Google’s certainly hoping so.