At one point early in VR’s life, Job Simulator was the most popular VR title, throwing players into comically mundane real-world job situations as futuristic robots would see them. Although it was was dethroned by rhythm game Beat Saber, Job Simulator still continues to perform well and has now surpassed one million copies sold. This makes it the second “made for VR” game to reach the milestone, behind Beat Saber hitting that in March last year. As noted by developer Owlchemy Labs, its game has “gone Platinum,” which is a major accomplishment that only two VR experiences share.
While surpassing the million mark is common with AAA games, it isn’t as frequent with independent titles, and even less so when it comes to the niche market of VR. PSVR has the highest install base of any headset at a mere 5 million units sold, with other popular headsets selling far fewer than that. Because of the overall VR market size being relatively small to the rest of the games industry, we haven’t yet seen many VR games reach those heights.
Thank you @oculus for the beautiful trophy! It was our pleasure to bring Job Simulator to Oculus Quest as a launch title pic.twitter.com/3OLyxcWU6Y
— Owlchemy Labs (@OwlchemyLabs) January 2, 2020
The wording is important here: Job Simulator is the second “made for VR” game to sell over a million units. That’s because there are a handful of games with optional VR functionality, like Resident Evil 7, WipEout Omega Collection, or Rise of the Tomb Raider—all of which include PSVR integration of some kind—that have far surpassed 1 million sales, however, however, they don’t require the VR headset to play.
Job Simulator released in 2016 for PC VR units and came to PSVR later that year. It received positive reviews upon launch, with critics praising its humor and complete feeling. It spawned a pseudo-sequel called Vacation Simulator, which takes many of the elements of its predecessor, but with a focus on a vacation theme. Both are available to download on PS4 now, though don’t forget that you’ll need to own a PSVR headset to play.
[Source: Owlchemy Labs]
