Data from Amazon US suggests that Quest headsets didn’t sell as well over Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2024 as compared to 2023.
Based on data from Amazon US, in 2023 about 170,000 Quest headsets had sold in the 30 day window surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In 2024, that number was around 146,000 Quest headsets, representing a drop in sales volume of 14%. This may not be representative of other retailers.
That’s a surprising outcome considering Meta just launched its new-and-improved Quest 3S, made a significant price cut to Quest 3, and had a flagship game with recognizable IP (Batman: Arkham Shadow) ready in time for Black Friday.
During the 2023 holiday shopping season, Meta was still selling its aging Quest 2 headset. That year’s Black Friday deal on the most popular version of the headset (128GB) was just $250 with a $50 gift card, making the headset essentially just $200.
That proved to be more popular at the time then this year’s deal in which Meta was pushing the Quest 3S (128GB) model for $300 with a $75 gift card, representing essentially a $225 purchase.
I think there are a bunch of things at play here. The whole pricing structure of this generation is kind of problematic; the 3 is a little too expensive for the mass market, and the 3S is supposed to be an answer for that, but the discount below the 3 isn’t large enough to make it seem like a good deal given the visual and comfort downgrades involved. Meanwhile family budgets are pretty tight, and folks are feeling really uncertain about the future, so big-ticket items that are purely for escapism seem like something you can postpone.
There’s also some crossover with folks who do have the money, but may be saving it for a Switch 2 next year, or one of the Steam devices (Steam Deck 2, Deckard, Steam OS consoles) if any of those ever actually turn up. (Not holding my breath on them, but hey, Brad has been saying…) I think there’s also some degree of fatigue over the cadence of device replacements in so many categories these days (phone, console, handheld, headset…) that may be inclining people to wait and see a bit more. Some folks are probably also saving for a computer replacement, thanks to Microsoft’s strict requirements for Windows 11 and next year’s End Of Support for Windows 10.
TL;DR: I would expect most niche luxury goods to have decreased sales this holiday season over last year’s.
