Steam: Virtual reality?s biggest-ever jump in users happened last month

This month, at least, we have an intriguing new data point: a burst in PC-VR hardware use, two months in a row.Valve's gaming marketplace Steam includes an opt-in hardware survey feature, and the results are published as percentages of surveyed users on a monthly basis. (Valve representatives did not immediately respond to Ars' questions about Steam's current MAU counts.)Additionally, the survey only counts VR system ownership if a headset is connected to a Steam user's computer when the survey is taken—as opposed to tracking VR software use through the month. That's a likely use case for anybody taking advantage of the recent Oculus Link feature, exclusive to the otherwise portable Oculus Quest system.Let's not forget, there is likely a significant number of Oculus system owners who never connect to Steam, thanks to its Oculus Home landing zone (which loads an all-in-one storefront whenever users put a Rift, Rift S, or Quest headset over their eyes).Between those factors, basing any guess on the painfully conservative MAU count of 90 million gets us to 1.17 million PC-VR users connecting to Steam. This might be due to Oculus Link functioning effectively like an Oculus Rift S when it interfaces with the SteamVR software suite; Valve can only report what a connected headset reports, and Quest hardware fakes like a Rift S as far as its connection to SteamVR is concerned.Coincidentally, the latest Steam hardware survey shows a dramatic jump in Oculus Rift S ownership, up 33 percent compared to its prior month.