Valve, the company behind the legendary PC gaming software, Steam created a legendary VR title, Half-Life: Alyx that has taken the throne for the top-rated VR game.
As one of the most anticipated VR games of 2020, Half-Life: Alyx definitely lived up to the hype. Valve’s new VR game has finally surpassed Beat Saber as the top-rated VR game on Steam. Beat Saber is an amazing game, but the sheer scope and scale of Half-Life: Alyx is on a totally different level.
Valve had a great strategy of giving a free copy of Alyx to anyone who bought their VR headset, the Valve Index. Of course, the steep cost of the Index wasn’t exactly justified with a free game, but many VR enthusiasts like to have the latest and greatest equipment, myself included. Naturally, anyone who planned on getting the Index was pleasantly surprized by the free copy of the soon-to-be top rated VR game of all time.
When Alyx launched, it crushed the concurrent VR record on Steam with a staggering 43k players! That number was about double of the former top candidate, Beat Saber. Because of the playstyle of Half-Life, it’s amazing to see perform so well. Beat Saber is a replayable, music-based game with new songs added all the time. Alyx is a massive, single-player game not really designed for replayability.
The only thing holding back Alyx is the lack of multi-platform support. Beat Saber can be played on most major VR platforms as opposed to Alyx only being available on Steam.
The massive success of Half-Life: Alyx is a great sign for the future of VR. Valve’s ambitious plan to make Half-Life the gateway to mainstream VR succeeded in many ways. Of course, true mainstream adoption is probably still a couple of years away. We’re gaining more and more users every day. The game added a massive 700k new VR players to the ecosystem. The future’s looking bright for VR.
To put things into perspective, Half-Life: Alyx currently sits as the 20th best-rated title on Steam. That’s right, out of all the games on Steam it’s sitting pretty at number 20. Not only that, it managed to get 300k concurrent viewers on Steam at launch. Yes, it even took down the Behomths like League of Legends, Fortnite, and Warzone for a while.
Valve did an amazing job with their latest ambitious title. We hope Valve continues making great VR games that will add more and more weight behind the justification of purchasing a VR headset. We’re excited to see what’s next.
In other news
Looking for a new headset? The Oculus Rift S is now only $300.
Stay up-to-date with the latest VR news.