Nobody has really known just how many units HTC managed to shift of its virtual reality, Vive headset; all we can make are some educated guesses. Early stats from an HTC staffer told us that 15,000 went out on in the first 10 minutes of going on sale, but what about since then?
SteamDB and SteamSpy data for those playing Vive compatible games like Fantastic Contraption, Job Simulator and Tilt Brush - all games given away free with the Vive headset - show that around 50,000 units are currently out there, with at least 35,000 of them consumer units - the other 15,000 perhaps being Vive Pres which were sent out before to developers and the like.
That 's pretty impressive for HTC, which has really been struggling in the last year to make any dent in its ever worsening losses. While dropping over $140 million isn't going to be fixed by Vive sales, the near $30 million generated from selling that many Vives would certainly help.
As UploadVR points out too, these numbers might actually be even higher, as there are certain territories, like China, where Steam is not available and yet there are a lot of HTC Vive owners there already.
It's likely that we'll have to wait until the end of the next quarter to find out how many Vives actually shipped out to consumers, but it will be very interesting to hear at that point, as we should also learn a little about the Oculus Rift's numbers around then too.
While we would expect the Rift to sell a few more than the Vive due to name recognition, the gap seems to have narrowed in recent months as reviews paint the Vive as the superior hardware.