Oculus apparently had an awesome Christmas if app downloads are anything to go by

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Meta, Oculus’ parent company, had a bumper year if the App Store charts for Christmas Day are any indication. The Oculus app topped the charts on Christmas Day in the US and was downloaded 1.3 million times between both Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, according to data from Sensor Tower.

Oculus doesn’t report sales figures for its headsets, but those app downloads are likely to correspond to individual headset sales. That would also make it one of the more popular tech items for gifting.

This is the first time the Oculus app has topped the App Store on Christmas. The company’s latest headset, the Oculus Quest 2, is so far ahead of any competitors that it’s no surprise, really.

It was a big year for Oculus all around. Topping the App Store. Becoming even more central to Meta/Facebook’s plans to dominate the metaverse.

Not to say that there isn’t more work to do. We’re still a long way from their vision of the virtual future. Virtual reality headsets are still niche and don’t have anywhere near the user base as devices like smartphones.

For Meta’s virtual ambitions to take hold, it will have to get units into more homes. Perhaps using the hardware as a loss leader, as the console video game industry does, is a path forward.

The hardware is going to need to be more powerful and easier to control before the metaverse vision can be realized. Until then, the headsets are mostly being used for gaming and VR porn, if mentions on Twitter are anything to go by.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.