Resident Evil 7 biohazard was one of the first big success stories of the PlayStation VR. Not only reinventing a classic horror series that many critics believed had gone stale, but also inviting a new audience to try out virtual reality (VR). A year on from its initial release, how is the VR player base looking?
A mere seven days after its initial release, over 900,000 players had entered the gloomy plantation house, with 88,0072 choosing to face the murderous Baker family in VR using the PlayStation VR. By November 2017, this figure had increased to an impressive 307,884 VR users, comprising 11.55% of the total Resident Evil 7 biohazard player base.
The total player base now numbers over 3 million, and the number of VR users has risen by almost 100,000, bringing the current total to 393,094, representing 12.97% of the total player base.
The figures were presented on Capcom’s official Resident Evil 7 biohazard website, which was gathered from players who have enabled the in-game data transmission option. As such, the figures are broadly representative, but not completely accurate, so the total number of VR users is likely to be higher.
The website also records some lighthearted stats, such as the total time players have spent playing Resident Evil 7 biohazard, which currently totals over five thousand years, or the combined distance travelled by all players, which is over 100m kilometers.
Capcom previously confirmed that playing Resident Evil 7 biohazard doubled the amount of time players spent immersed in VR, proving that the right kinds of engaging, high-quality content can encourage players to spent more time in the virtual environment.
It is likely that a new influx of players resulted from the release of Resident Evil 7 biohazard Gold Edition, which includes all the DLC content released so far, and may have found its way under the Christmas tree of some users.
The title is now at the end of its 12-month platform exclusivity, so it is possible that Capcom could port the title over to Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or even Windows Mixed Reality. Whatever developments, VRFocus will be sure to report on them.