Valve Index always in the top 5 of Steam, despite the out of stock

Valve Index always in the top 5 of Steam, despite the out of stock

Valve Index as we know is one of the most expensive but also the most technologically advanced viewers available on the market. In particular, the Index controllers represent the best for those looking for maximum interactivity in the virtual environment, but they make splash the price of the Index package well above 1000 euros.

Covid has also caused a very frequent shortage of supplies. Gabe Newell himself recently stated this in an interview:

“We actually have components made in Wuhan and when you set up production lines it doesn’t occur to you that suddenly you are going to depend on that particular transistor that is on a board that you can’t get. Eventually everyone ran into the same problem at the same time: from saying “Oh, we’re in great shape” to “What do you mean Apple or Microsoft just bought the supply for the next two years just to make sure they don’t run out?”. You went from a situation where everything was done just in time to people buying all available stock. “

Despite all this, the headset has frequently appeared among the best-selling products on Steam by turnover, and even has been 13 consecutive weeks in the top 5. This is not to say that Valve Index is selling more than cheaper headsets like Oculus Quest. But from a revenue standpoint, Index seems to be doing very well at Valve.

Always be careful to compare the revenue of a hardware with the sales of video games. Index in fact costs about the same as 17 games sold for 60 euros. However it remains impressive to see that The headset’s revenue is ranked alongside some of the best-selling games in the world. For a few weeks – excluding the 13-week series – Index surpassed the weekly revenue of major games like Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, and others.

Looking at the historical data, we can see how often the headset has remained in the top 10 best-selling Steam products of each week, including eight separate weeks in which it reached the top spot. Even if Valve fails to make many profits from every Index sold, the revenue stream generated is overall still a good thing for a company.

Do you agree with Valve’s strategy? Or do you think viewers need to open up more to the masses with cheap products like Facebook is doing? Let us know in the comments!