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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.

That’s not a huge difference in cost, and from a value standpoint, the Quest 3S is far and away worth the $25 difference. However, price isn’t the only factor; broader economic factors and deals on competing products (not to mention changes in interest in VR overall) are all significant additional variables.

When it comes to the sales ratio between Quest 3S and Quest 3 during this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the headsets have sold around 3:1, similar to the ratio between Quest 2 and Quest 3 in 2023.