Despite the enormous amount of buzz that the Google Daydream VR has generated upon its launch, it seems that consumer interest might not be as enthusiastic. This came after some sources noted that some of its biggest VR titles are not selling as well as expected.
Daydream View VR Downloads
One does not really need to conduct a survey or a sophisticated app analytics to find how Daydream apps are faring. You can just head to the Google Play Store because, like any of its Android peers, Daydream apps can be downloaded from the platform as well.
Naturally, the VR app will also show its download statistics and perhaps one of the best performing of the lot so far is YouTube VR. It is already lumped within the category with 100,000-500,000 installations.
The same, however, cannot be said about several titles. A number of these could only manage a few thousand downloads.
To put things into perspective, we went back to our list of top five VR games for Daydream last month and checked how they are performing at the Play Store. The download figures are grim.
VR App Performance
Take the case of ArcSlinger, which we found one of the most impressive in the first-person shooter genre. It is only earning between 5,000 and 10,000 installs.
One might say that this game is a paid app so it makes sense if wary Daydream users are avoiding it at this point in time. So we turned to Fantastic Beasts, a free VR content exploring a dimension to the Harry Potter universe.
Since the game's update last Nov. 16, it was only able to join the club of apps with 50,000 and 100,000 downloads. That is quite surprising especially when the content is already powered by a powerful brand and backed by Warner Bros. no less.
Danger Goat, which is also part of our top five list, is languishing within the 1,000-5,000 install category. The number of installs for big studio releases such as Need for Speed: No Limits VR and Gunjack 2 are the same.
Certainly, VR app downloads cannot exclusively reveal the sales performance of the Daydream View VR or the overall health of the platform. However, one cannot discount the fact that it is an indication of the users' engagement, providing us insights with respect to the developmental trajectory of Google VR platform.
It is also helpful to remember that the Daydream View VR was only launched in October so there is still room for the platform to really take off.
It will also be interesting to see how the Daydream View VR competitors such as the Samsung Gear VR are holding up.
