Quest is Outselling Nintendo Switch 2 on Amazon (and every other game console)

By
Ben Lang
-
25

Despite being released more than a year ago, Meta’s Quest 3-series headsets are outselling Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console on Amazon, which was released just this Summer.

The News

In the last 30 days (which includes the whole of the Black Friday shopping week), Quest 3 and Quest 3S models have collectively sold 154,000 units on Amazon US. That puts the headsets just ahead of Nintendo’s newest console, Switch 2, which has sold 150,000 units on Amazon US over the last 30 days, and was released in June. The other major consoles (PlayStation 5 / 5 Pro and Xbox Series X / S) which are now much older, have sold less than Quest or Switch 2.

And in Amazon’s ‘Best Sellers’ list in the Video Games category, Meta’s best selling individual headset, Quest 3S (128GB), is just ahead of Nintendo’s most popular Switch 2 bundle, at number #6 and #7 respectively.

Meanwhile, PlayStation 5 is seen at #13, Quest 3 (512GB) at #24, and Xbox Series X at #60 on the ‘Best Sellers’ list.

On one hand, it shouldn’t be entirely surprising to see Meta’s cheapest headset Quest 3S (128GB) with its $250 holiday sale price beating out Switch 2’s $400 MSRP. But on the other hand, those constantly bemoaning the “death of VR” would have you believe that Quest 3S sales volume wouldn’t even be in the same ballpark as a Nintendo console.

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Interestingly, the latest generation of Quest headsets appear to be slightly down in sales volume on Amazon US compared to the prior year. It’s possible we’ll see a late spike, but in years past, Quest sales volume has just about peaked by December 23rd.

My Take

Despite Quest’s impressive and quite seasonal sales volume, there’s no doubt that the headsets have struggled with retention. Meta has sold its headsets at exceptionally low price points over the years, which has helped move units out the door. But even though there is thought to be tens of millions of Quest headsets out in the wild, the number of active pales in comparison to the major game consoles. Without strong retention and the ability to make back profit on the software side, the subsidized headset strategy has contributed to the major loses that Meta’s Reality Labs division has sustained since its inception.

Meta made moves earlier this year to raise the bar on software and UX design for its wearable devices, which will hopefully improve future retention. But those moves are also rumored to lead to a price hike on the company’s headsets, which is likely to tamp back the impressive sales volume that Quest has seen over the years.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • NL_VR

    no wonder, even the simpliest VR games are better. Consoles sucks and Nintendo Switch sucks :D

    • Edward V. Gutierrez
      • NL_VR

        cry som more its the truth :P

        • Edward V. Gutierrez

          Sure. Keep telling yourself that. Let us know when you gone back to reality.

          • NL_VR

            The only one that need to come back to reality is you and understand that people like different things :D

          • Edward V. Gutierrez

            You’re just an idiot aren’t you? Your blocked.

          • Leisure Suit Barry

            So PSVR2 sucks because it's linked to a console?

          • NL_VR

            Nope, PSVR2 is a vr headset that nowadaysyou also can run on PC. in this case its the other way around.
            PS5 suck because PSVR2 is the only vr-headset you can run on it.

    • Maximillian

      How childish and juvenile.

      There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with console gaming period.

      Grow up.

      • NL_VR

        its a personal opinion and thats what i think, just accept it. Console today is nothing like what it once was. Closed bad eco system. no usp except for "its not a computer" which i can say i understand but then all the other things that is bad come with it. Can i play my Nintendo games on Switch just like that? no i have to pay a subscription again if i dont have the actual hardware.
        On PC i can play all my old nintendo games decades back.

  • Dragon Marble

    That's impressive.

    Why is PSVR2 nowhere to be found on that list? It's not selling at Quest 3 level, but at least comparable to the console itself.

    • Leisure Suit Barry

      I bought a PSVR2 last week, but I know what I bought into. £294 Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle and bought about 30 games most £5-£10. No way was it ever worth £570 (which is $771). Sony was out of their mind

      We all know PSVR2 was DOA due to the price, it's selling worse than PSVR1

  • Rogue Transfer

    Until you look at the wider picture. For example, in Amazon UK, the Switch 2 has sold 18K+ over the last month, compared to just 6.5K+ of the Quest 3S+3.

    The Quest seems really US-centric in terms of sales numbers, typically. They haven't really managed to be as successful as other consoles elsewhere.

    It'd be interesting to investigate all of Amazon country-specific sites to find out the worldwide pattern.

    • NL_VR

      Europeans seems more attached with their a**es to the chairs and aofas than the americans and asians that for sure.
      a more conservative people when it comes to tech, which is also the common pattern as europe as a whole has not much to contribute to end consumer tech products

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        Europe has always been PC gaming country, and during the 80's home computer country, while the US and Japan have always been console heavy. So Quest as a VR console selling worse in Europe than in the US is just continuing the trend. But the more important factor will be Meta focusing mainly on the US market, with most of the marketing there, a number of Quest features like Meta AI only available in Northern America, and (temporary) price reductions driving sales often limited to the US too.

        Both European users and law makers are also very keen about data privacy, making Meta not particularly popular in general. The only Meta product Europeans really like to use is WhatsApp. They are generally more open system/open source friendly, partly due to the European patent law not allowing for extremely broad nonsense software patents, causing projects like VLC to be hosted within the EU to protect them from gazillions of US patent holders. Closed platforms are much more frowned upon, leading to iOS only holding about 38% of the mobile market in the EU compared to 60% in the US.

        And regarding asses attached to chairs and sofas and a general lack of movement: The average US BMI is 29.1 men/29.6 women. The average EU BMI is 25.5 men/24.5 women

        • NL_VR

          i understand and agree with you completly.
          But europe is way after when it comes to end consumer tech. They had a chance to be number 1 but they didnt dare back in the late 90ies and millenial shift because the crash.

        • XRC

          We had a big home computing scene here in the UK with the ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64, BBC micro and later the Amiga and Atari ST. Consoles weren't as popular until much later, they were relatively expensive especially the games cartridges.

          It birthed a big development scene in the UK with many early software houses established during 8 bit era, and many magazines based around popular home computers.

          I spent many hours typing basic programmes into my Spectrum, thanks to games listings from the magazines, who would often publish the bug fixes in the next edition!

          Amazing times, long tape loading with sometimes tricky azimuth adjustments were part of the charm.

    • Exactly this is to be taken in count. It's good news that Quest is selling well in the US, but outside US things are not going so well

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Put it in perspective. I like Quest 3. But get back to me when it sells 100 million like PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.

    • NL_VR

      Its a news article on a VR site how Quest 3 sells more than console at a given period.
      Console fanboys rush in claiming its "pushing a narrative". LoL

    • Jistuce

      PS1 did not do 100 million right out the gate. That was a lifetime sales number over a decade, and if we want to be totally honest it includes a good number of double-purchases due to the early units being prone to overheating and also drive failure.

      The GameBoy number's even worse, as it's an aggregate of original and GBColor sales.

  • ErickTheDiver

    We really need more high quality games for VR!

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    But on the other hand, those constantly bemoaning the “death of VR” would have you believe that Quest 3S sales volume wouldn’t even be in the same ballpark as a Nintendo console.

    And they aren't, at least not when also looking beyond Amazon US. The Switch 2 released in June 2025, sold 3.5M units in the first four days, and more than 10M within six months. Sales projections for Switch 2 by end 2025 are 13M-15M, with Nintendo estimating 19M sold within the first 10 months (the end of their fiscal year).

    Quest 2 is estimated to have sold 20M units over four years, and sold better than Quest 3/3S. It is at least somewhat doubtful that the Quest 3 sold 3.5M units since its release two years ago, and going by the Meta fourth quarter revenue, the USD 299 Quest 3S sold worse during its launch holiday seasons than the Quest 2 a year before at USD 249 during its third holiday season (meaning the 2023 revenue divided by USD 299 resulted in a lower unit number than the 2022 revenue divided by UD 249).

    I do not doubt that Quest is selling better on Amazon US, and we don't have a lot of available sources to go by in general. But consoles like PS5 or Switch are still heavily sold through retailers like Best Buy or Target, and we know that Switch 2 is selling a lot better than Quest overall, and the PS5 is quickly approaching 90M consoles sold and still going strong, despite the Quest apparently currently selling more on Amazon. So all the "Quest is selling better on Amazon than X" news have to be take with a large grain of salt, as this most likely isn't representative for the overall market.

  • eadVrim

    VR has become a must-have for racing, flight, and space simulation games. For many players, including me, VR is now essential to continue enjoying video games

  • Herbert Werters

    Now Meta only needs the games that Nintendo and other consoles have. ;)

    So now we need another comparison that looks at the software sales figures for all consoles. So that we can discuss the really important economic issues here.