Games and porn are the biggest drivers of revenue for the fledgling virtual reality industry, according to an analysis released by porn app company SexLikeReal. How did we all already know that?
SexLikeReal said it analyzed the July 6 leak on Steam games as well as its own data on porn revenues to come up with the analysis. It found that 481 VR games released since 2016 have generated $50 million in sales, and it found that 6,000 VR videos released to date have also generated about $50 million in revenues. If you add revenues from PlayStation VR and Oculus Home, game VR revenues top $130 million.
While that may sound like a lot, that means that VR games in the past few years have generated a tiny fraction of the revenues of the game industry, which is expected to hit $125.4 billion in 2018, according to market researcher Newzoo.
This data clearly show that VR games and VR porn are the biggest consumer markets and thus the key drivers of virtual reality, SexLikeReal said. In many ways, that’s no surprise since games and porn have reportedly driven sales of many consumer electronics products, going back to the video cassette recorder and the first personal computers.
“It’s interesting to compare that figure with our previous research about the VR porn market in 2017, which saw sales of $18 million in gross revenue,” said Alex Novak, CEO of SexLikeReal, in a statement. “Looking at sales over the same period as the data from Steam we estimate a total of $50 million with around 6,000 VR videos being released to date, with $15 million in revenue in 2018. So far, VR games and VR porn appear to be the biggest consumer markets.”
Thanks to the July 6 Steam leak, it became possible to calculate the approximate revenue of the VR gaming industry’s major distribution platform. The data reveal there are over 3.5 million VR game players profiles, and one game owner could have a number of player profiles for his family and friends.
The SexLikeReal team has narrowed down the list to 481 VR titles only, setting the numbers of players and prices alongside the release date. The company made its estimate for VR revenues since 2016, which was the year consumer Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets debuted on the market.
Above: VR porn is making decent money.
SexLikeReal’s VR app is like the Steam of VR porn. It allows users to purchase and stream adult videos, and since 2016, the app has been downloaded by 600,000 users and ranks No. 1 on Google when people look for VR Porn App. At the same time, it is not allowed to be published on any major content platform and needs to be sideloaded from SLR website.
The biggest content platforms, as well as VR content stores, prohibit adult material, and while GearVR and Oculus Go make it difficult to install the app, iPhone and PSVR rule out the option to install it. That means that porn has significant distribution limitations compared to the gaming industry.
“The biggest porn sites are tube streaming sites with a business model that sets back the whole industry by giving away allegedly stolen content for free, for the cost of watching third party ads — with little to no money going to the actual content producers. Luckily, the negative effect of these tube sites is less severe for VR porn,” said Novak.
Also, tech limitations mean these platforms are not able to keep up with the quality improvements and subsequent file-size increase of VR videos.
SexLikeReal noted that some developers have confirmed the accuracy of the leaked Steam figures. But the company reduced its estimate of actual revenues to account for the fact that some of these titles were supplied for free with the Vive headset at various times. The company also said some of the titles were purchased during promotional periods and at a discounted price, and the prices varied over time. Here’s the file with the data SexLikeReal used.
