Valve's Steam Frame has made its first real mark on Steam's own numbers. In the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for October 2026, the headset accounts for 4.13% of VR headsets used on Steam, up 3.72 percentage points on the previous month. That puts it sixth in Valve's VR headset table, comfortably inside the top ten.
October was the first full month the headset was on sale. PC Gamer reports that the Steam Frame officially released on September 18, with preorders opening on September 14, and that it accounted for just 0.41% of VR headset usage in September.
Where it sits now
According to Valve's survey page, the October VR headset ranking opens like this:
- Meta Quest 3: 27.27% (+0.36)
- Oculus Quest 2: 22.23% (-3.57)
- Meta Quest 3S: 11.04% (-0.04)
- Valve Index HMD: 9.90% (-0.93)
- Pico 4: 4.50% (-0.26)
- Valve Steam Frame: 4.13% (+3.72)
- Oculus Rift S: 3.26% (-0.14)
- Sony PS VR2: 2.41% (+0.10)
- HTC Vive: 2.00% (-0.26)
- Windows Mixed Reality: 1.79% (-0.06)
The Steam Frame now sits just behind the Pico 4 and ahead of the Oculus Rift S, PS VR2 and the original HTC Vive. In the same table, the Steam Frame's 3.72-point rise is the largest gain of any named headset this month, while the Oculus Quest 2 posted the largest fall, down 3.57 points.
PC Gamer counts the headsets the Steam Frame overtook in a single month: the Oculus Rift S, Sony PS VR2, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality (a platform rather than one headset), the original Oculus Rift and Bigscreen Beyond. Further down Valve's table, outside the top ten, the original Oculus Rift sits at 1.67% and Bigscreen Beyond at 1.31%. Valve's previous headset, the Index, is still ahead of the Frame at 9.90%, but it lost 0.93 points in October, one of the larger drops on the list.
Valve's survey also shows how small the pool is. Steam users with a VR headset made up 1.75% of respondents in October, up 0.40 points. In other words, the Steam Frame's 4.13% is a share of that slice, not of Steam as a whole.
Why the number is still moving
PC Gamer notes that buyers didn't necessarily get their headsets on launch day, so shipping times as well as continued sales fed October's bump. The outlet also reports that both the 256 GB and 1 TB models are backordered, meaning new orders go onto a waiting list, which it reads as a sign Frame usage is unlikely to entirely stagnate.
The usual caveat applies. Valve describes the survey as optional and anonymous, and PC Gamer notes that because it samples only a fraction of Steam users, the figures shift a little from month to month. It is a rough reading of what people are plugging in, not a sales chart.
Mason's take: The headline isn't that the Steam Frame is sixth. It's that a Valve headset jumped past most of the PC VR old guard in a single month while still on backorder. The Quest family still owns this table, with the Quest 3, Quest 2 and Quest 3S together making up more than 60% of headsets, and that won't flip quickly. My read, and it is only a read, is that the Index slipping 0.93 points in the same month the Frame climbed hints at some existing Valve VR owners upgrading. Whether the Frame can widen that audience, rather than just reshuffle it, is the number worth watching when the November survey lands.
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