VR rhythm game Beat Saber sells one million copies
Beat Saber will go down as one of the virtual reality market's first killer apps after moving over one million copies.
The virtual reality industry is still working its way toward wider adoption and some upcoming headsets could be just the ticket to a massive install base, but one of the platform's killer apps is already here. Beat Saber has become a hit in VR communities and still has a lot of room for growth, but it has reached a major milestone for now. Beat Saber has sold more than one million copies.
If you're not familiar, Beat Saber is a rhythm game that has players swing two lightsabers at various blocks along with a collection of tunes. Players swing left, right, up, down, and diagonally while also avoiding while occasionally avoiding walls and mines. The game has a limited selection of tunes currently, but various workarounds have been created so that players can add a large collection of custom songs to it. The game does officially have the wildly popular song "Pop/Stars" by the fictional group K/DA from League of Legends. There's also a DLC pack releasing this week, adding 10 new songs to the game.
Beat Games co-founder and CEO Jaroslav Beck suggested in an interview with Variety that Beat Saber's success has been fairly organic, traveling mostly via word-of-mouth. “We did zero PR whatsoever,” Beck said. “We didn’t expect that it would blow up that crazy.”
Beyond just fortuitous timing, there are a handful of reasons why Beat Saber is doing well. For one, its a simple way to introduce the uninitiated to VR. There aren't many opportunities for movements that lead to disorientation, only having the player step left and right or duck as boxes move toward them. The act of slicing in a specific direction to the beat of a song is simple to explain and act out, too, not delving too deeply into the deeper worlds that are available on VR platforms.
Beat Saber is available now for PSVR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive. Stay tuned to Shacknews for additional gaming and tech updates.
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