Animal Company, the free-to-play early access game on Quest, has been at the top of the platform’s highest-earning games multiple weeks in a row own, with long-time favorite Gorilla Tag sitting right behind it. And the Lethal Company-inspired game isn’t showing any signs of waning in popularity either.

Animal Company crossed a boundary only one other game has managed to do; Another Axiom’s Gorilla Tag was the first to garner over 100,000 user reviews on Quest, doing so last March—making it by far the most successful game on the platform, both in review numbers and revenue generated.

Now, Wooster Games’ Animal Company, which includes Gorilla Tag’s arm-based locomotion and action from hit survival game Lethal Company, has crossed the 100K user review mark, nearly doubling user reviews since the studio announced it had topped 1 million monthly active users (MAU) last month. And it’s done so remarkably fast.

This time last month, Animal Company was sitting around over 60,000 user reviews on the Horizon Store, while Gorilla Tag was just above 140,000. This past month alone, Animal Company has rocketed to over 108,000 user reviews, while Gorilla Tag has only tallied 6,000 more over the course of the month.

According to figures obtained by independent data aggregator VRDB, there was a big boost in user reviews starting in mid-March:

Image courtesy VRDB

Provided the game continues its current trajectory, Animal Company could conceivably unseat Gorilla Tag as Quest’s most popular game when it comes to user reviews, although there a few more metrics to account for.

Consistent daily active users (DAU) and MAU metrics are pretty important too, which is why Gorilla Tag is still the most popular game on Quest week-in and week-out—although Animal Company is now right behind it.

Ultimately, this ongoing explosion of users also needs to translate into growing revenue for the studio, something Wooster hasn’t shared since it first turned on microtransactions in September—meaning there’s no telling how that success has translated into real-world revenue.

Last month, Wooster Games did tell Road to VR however the launch of in-app purchases has left the studio in “a strong and healthy position.”

“Since launching monetization in September, our revenue has grown consistently month-over-month, more than doubling since December,” the studio told Road to VR in March. “The real standout stat, though, is our player base—Animal Company now has over 1 million MAU, a 4x increase since December.”

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This comes as the Quest platform is seeing a growing demographic shift spurred on by the release of Quest 3S, Meta’s $300 mixed reality headset. Meta confirmed earlier this year that the rise F2P content and younger players is seeing a boom in revenue generated from in-app purchases—like the ones you’ll find in Animal Company or Gorilla Tag.

The key question now is whether this momentum will translate into sustained engagement and revenue growth over time. We’re eager to hear those revenue numbers, when and if Wooster Games ever releases word, which will give us a clearer picture of just how Quest’s top-earning titles are currently faring. If it’s anything like Gorilla Tag’s most recent figure released last June, it may already be in the millions.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Anonymous

    Tried and never understood the charm of Gorilla Tag and all their clone games, even without mentioning screaching kids.

    -Poor graphics compared to even other standalone games.
    -Poorly thought out UI or not even having basic QOL features for an app made in 2020s.
    -Janky and repetitive controls with little to do.
    -Low effort stage designs.

    These GT games are a disgrace to the entire gaming industry.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      And yet, sometimes it's the simple gameplays that attrackt the most people, just look at beat saber.

    • philingreat

      What they have done really well is that you start the game and are immediately in a multiplayer game. no joining or waiting. It's just seamless. I have no clue why they changed that formula for the Orion Drift game.

  • BananaBreadBoy

    As eye rolly as the string of Gorilla tag clones and offshoots might be, and as grating as hearing every little squeaking in current games is, I'm glad VR is getting successful with younger generations. Young people in Quest's today are the next generation VR devs and consumers after all.

    • polysix

      It's not though.. .this is less about "VR" and more about the latest gizmo/novelty, that's the issue with chasing the lowest common denominator and targeting kids with almost "Non VR , VR".

      If all these kids were playing GT7 on PSVR2 then VR would be in a very healthy place.

      META Trojan horsed themselves into VR and are intent on ruining it for their own long term gains, very much like the shovelware mobile phone game gold rush of the past.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        But GT7 is just boring, it's just another racing game.. but I now know that that's probably the type of games you like.

      • BananaBreadBoy

        >targeting kids with almost "Non VR , VR".

        That seems like a weird complaint. For all the flaws of Gorilla Tag, it is very much a VR first game, with mechanics that take full advantage of headsets that couldn't be converted adequately to flatscreen

        Young kids nowadays just love social multiplayer games with low barriers to entry. Same reason Fortnite's wildly popular, same reason apps like VRchat and Gorilla Tag are the most popular for headsets.

        As basic as these kind of games are, kids still enjoy putting on headsets to play them, to be active and move around in them, older generations complaints about motion sickness be damned. As they get older and tastes more refined, that natural appreciation for VR from a young age will push them to more complex games naturally.

  • VRDeveloper

    It's simple to understand: these are children's games, and kids like silly things. This is the modern version of the games our generation used to play outside, like tag and hide-and-seek. Since the world is too messed up for kids to play on the streets, these games provide a safe environment for them to interact.

    Accept it—us adults are the minority in VR. Our generation has passed, and now the new ones are coming in. This cycle is just part of life. Maybe we shouldn't be playing video games anymore and should instead focus on other things like entrepreneurship or starting a family, etc. Maybe we are the ones in the wrong environment, not the other way around.

    • polysix

      Stop excusing this shite. It's not good for VR and even these idiot kids will grow out of the novelty soon enough, then what?

      Proper VR needs more support not this trash. META needs to go. Standalone needs to go. LCD needs to go. MOBILE CHIPSET VR needs to go and these screaming low IQ kids need to go.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Again, this shite is what keeps VR still going, as it seems very popular so therefore selling headsets and selling headsets means more development into new headsets.
        mobile chipsets DON'T need to go, they just need to advance and become more powerfull, and they do become more powerfull each new incarnation.
        PC GPU's have become soo f-ing expensive which is just ridiculous. 900+ euro's for a decent GPU which is capable of driving the current headsets at decent framerate with solid visuals is just madness.
        and what should go are cables, any headset with a cable to your PC is just freaking awful and 'needs to go'.
        And LCD with the latest headsets aren't that bad, I now favor my Pico 4 over my old grainy oled displays of my HTC Vive Pro. But of course I would like OLED or at least better displays, but certainly not at the expense of FOV, I'll take (good) LCD with a large FOV over OLED with a very small FOV.

    • polysix

      Oh and it shows how narrow minded you are if you equate the possible paradigm changing greatness that is "VR" as merely 'playing video games'. Please stay away from VR development regardless of your user name. We do NOT need even more shovelware trash in this space dragging it down.

      • VRDeveloper

        Man, if you knew how cool the game I'm creating is, you would become my fan. That's why I'm going to relieve all this stressed comment and just day, calm down bro, i just give a reflection.. calm down..

      • Andrew Jakobs

        I'd rather play a fun 'shovelware' game then a boring crap AAA game. WE need a wide variety of content, YOU are the one who is narrow minded.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      I do not know there is "right" or "wrong" environment: some people use PCs to browse and email, other create spreadsheets or write books on it, other play simple games like Suduko, otehrs run 4K flatscreen, polysix probably uses it for PCVR. All part of the PC environment, for VR I see similar developments.

  • Dragon Marble

    I do understand the appeal of the locomotion and gameplay, but why does everyone have to copy the ugly graphics as well? Has the ugliness become the trademark?

    • polysix

      Low effort trash on low effort trash standalone headsets with low effort trash chipsets and LCD… it proves itself bad through all these factors and has very little to do with VR and more to do with a gold rush similar to the trash that is/was smartphone gaming some years back.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        It has everything to do with VR, but you have different wants, you want triple A type of rtx5090 graphics with VR and 8k/eye displays, otherwise you aren"t satisfied, while more and more people are getting satisfied with VR with Quest 3/pico 4 level resolution displays.
        the headsets are perfectly fine, especially for the price, and can be used with standalone and PCVR streaming..
        would we want much better? Of course we would, but being realistic and at the price current headsets are sold, we are at what is feasible at this time for consumer prices going above the $600 price is already going out of the consumer range.
        but hee, if you are so unsatisfied, why not break the bank and go for those thousands of dollars costing headsets…

  • polysix

    I can't believe how low META has dragged the VR dream. It's disgusting. The sooner this standalone trash is gone from VR forever, the better.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, I guess a lot of people don't agree with you, seeing how popular the game is. I guess you just like different type of games. For instance I like adventure/escape room/shooting games, but my little nephew can't stop playing games like Monkey-doo or Gorilla tag and doesn't like games like HL:Alyx.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      Well, this is not "my kind" of VR games either… but it is just silly to condemn it because of that! Yes, the amount of "junk" in VR store gets confusing and people's definition of VR games may get distorted as a result, but OTOH once people get drawn into the VR world they may provide a solid basis for other VR games, and in numbers that finally allow for more AAA games coming our way.

    • Jonathan Winters III

      Although you are depressed, you can always play your Polysix for inspiration :)