In its first month, Beat Saber has sold 100,000 copies across Steam and Oculus, generating $2 million in revenue—another big milestone of success for a game still in early access and made by a three-person indie studio.

Update (05/28/18): Hyperbolic Magnetism has confirmed the new figure of 100,000 units sold, something they say was accomplished in “less than a month” via a recent tweet. The studio also says their level editor, which is poised to bring users a way to bring any music and create & share levels, is still in the works.

The original article detailing the 50K milestone follows below:

Original article (05/14/18): Beat Saber developer Hyperbolic Magnetism confirmed the 50,000 figure on Twitter, suggesting that 100,000 units isn’t far off. At $20 a pop, the game has generated around $1 million in revenue, before the 30% cut taken out by the storefronts.

Considering the game’s independent development, VR’s niche status, and the fact that the game has yet to be launched on PSVR, Beat Saber is a clear indie success, even now just two weeks after its early access launch.

Consider Fez (2012)—one of the best received indie games of the last decade—which took a little more than a month and a half to hit 100,000 unit sales. Yes, it was exclusive to the Xbox at launch, but that still represented a potential audience that was many times larger than all of the high end VR headsets today.

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And Beat Saber likely has most of its sales still to come. Despite its polish, the game is still in early access, with the developers still to add one of the top requested features: a track builder for user generated levels. And the game has yet to launch for PSVR, which would increase its potential audience by more than 2 million—which could be more than double what it is with PC VR headsets alone.

Beat Saber’s not-so-secret secret to success seems to have a lot to do with its balance of immediate fun, high accessibility, and motion-driven gameplay—attributes that anyone developing for VR should be heavily considering.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • JJ

    I don’t get why this game is selling so much…. They must have a ballin advertising team

    • jj

      or someone like roadtovr that will make 50 articles about it in one week. hmmm i wonder how they made it to top sales…

      • Gato Satanista

        “roadtovr that will make 50 articles about it in one week.” VR doesn’t have many fun and polished games being launched. Not so much subjects to choose for a site specialized in the VR niche. After I played the game, I wanted to talk to everybody and show the game to all my friends.Beat Saber deserved the free marketing.

    • Mike Childs

      It could be that it is incredibly fun and a great workout, and simple enough for anyone to play. Makes you feel like a boss musician no matter how stupid you look to someone watching you play.

      • Agree… I downloaded it because it sounded cool… light sabres with fitness work out.. alot to like…. perfect for parties.. plus easy enough that my Mum, early 60’s, during her first time using VR, completed a level (on easy) after less than 10 minutes of multiple attempts.

        • gothicvillas

          There are some really cool user made tracks and some of them beat even original beat mapping. I am having a blast of this game!!

    • benz145

      “Beat Saber’s not-so-secret secret to success seems to have a lot to do with its balance of immediate fun, high accessibility, and motion-driven gameplay—attributes that anyone developing for VR should be heavily considering.”

      I don’t believe they’ve done any paid advertising, it’s all been organic word of mouth.

      • Caven

        It also has immediate appeal in its favor. The closest thing to advertising I saw was the 30 second teaser, and had me hooked in well under 30 seconds. The hand-crafted gameplay was an instantly recognizable improvement over music titles that rely on procedural gameplay.

        • Tom

          The video that was released had around 150 million views across all channels – hugely viral. Over 40 million views on Facebook alone. There’s an interview with the developers on the Voices of VR podcast from a couple of weeks where they express their surprise at how well the videos were received. For a two man indie team they’ve done amazingly well.

      • David

        Yet it has almost 200 more players online than Skyrim VR? I had never even heard of Beat Saber till I looked on there one day and saw it was the top game.

        My first reaction was that it was a scam since this has happened in the past when a random game ended up on the top. Its surprising this game is a legit winner when its such an Indy title.

    • Imeian

      Mixed reality videos hyped the game a lot

    • Gato Satanista

      “I don’t get why this game is selling so much…” Its simple, easy to play but challenge to master, has the music appeal and it’s very fun. I will be surprised otherwise.

    • The game is neat, clean and funny. It has lightsabers, so it is a bit Star Wars. Furthermore they marketed it very very well and generated hype.

    • Lucidfeuer

      Simple concept and good PR.

  • Compliments to the devs!

  • Mat Harding

    Jessie Schell predicted back in 2016 that by 2018 one of the top ten VR games would be a dance game, this is pretty close to a VR dance game.

    • NooYawker

      Wait until feet and body tracking become common.

    • johngrimoldy

      Agreed. It’s quite close to a dance game.

      For something so simple (it sure isn’t exactly taxing the capabilities of my rig), it’s incredibly addicting and fun. It’s probably about the best Party VR title yet. How many times have I head, “Okay, I’m going to try that ONE more time.”

  • Jiggyjosh

    I started streaming lots of beat saber, come request songs and soon ill be in mixed reality

    https://www.twitch.tv/jiggyjosh

  • DanDei

    I love it. OVer on beatsaver.com there are already tons of user made levels. I already played over 50 custom made levels, most of them at least decent, some really brillant and imaginative in block sequencing and lighting. Once the official tool will be released that number will just skyrocket and there will be phenomenal stuff.

    • johngrimoldy

      What re your favorites? I found the Gangnam Style level is incredibly well done.

      I’ve tried creating levels of my own with the Alpha level creator. I discovered a couple of things: The process is tedious. If you don’t properly set the BPM (Beats per Minute) of the song, the timing will slip.

  • Josiah Bradley

    This game rocks! Buy it now. So much fun and borderline exercise.

  • HybridEnergy

    It was fun, while the 10 songs lasted. Mod songs don’t feel the same. It’s already really been done with sound boxing to be honest. I bought beat saber and did like it, but I like rhythm games. However, it’s success only worries me in one single area….I hope we’re not flooded now with lack luster cheap knock off wannabe beat saber music games by indie devs.