The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset was pre-ordered ‘five times more’ than previous model

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Facebook’s new Oculus Quest 2 VR headset has enjoyed a relatively successful launch, Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed. According to Facebook, the Quest 2 was ‘pre-ordered five times more’ than the original Quest model which released in 2019, showing a big increase in interest in the Oculus range, if not VR in general.

In an earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said: “Pre-orders have outpaced the original Quest pre-orders by more than 5x and have surpassed our expectations.”

Facebook launched its followup VR headset, the Oculus Quest 2, on October 13. “I’ve been very impressed and excited by the progress that our teams have made on this,” said Zuckerberg. “I think that the new Quest 2 product is extraordinary. I love using it. And I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done there.”

In the earnings call, Zuckerberg also mentioned that he thinks it is “Another big step forward for VR.”

Since its launch, however, people who bought the Quest 2 have been marred with problems using their Facebook accounts with the device.

Some people were left with a headset that wouldn’t work because of issues logging into their own Facebook accounts. Further to this, some people’s Facebook accounts were banned because they weren’t in ‘good standing’.

Despite these issues, the headset is objectively popular with people. In our Quest 2 review, we too were left more than impressed with what it offered, giving it 5/5 stars.

A big step forward for VR?

The Quest 2 pretty much improves upon everything Facebook achieved with its first Quest headset. You can also grab a 64GB Quest 2 for $299 / £299 / AU$479, which is $100 / £100 / AU$170 cheaper than the original Quest with the same storage.

The successful launch isn’t just clear to Facebook either, with third-party Oculus game dev reporting new users, with studios like Cloudhead Labs reporting that its game sales ‘increased tenfold’ since the Quest 2 was released.

It seems a year spent largely indoors is taking its toll, and people may be more inclined to vanish into virtual worlds, or at least experiment with new forms of entertainment they can do in their own home. For VR, this may be the big break the medium needed.