kayak vr

PlayStation VR 2 launched late last month alongside more than 40 titles, which included games entirely new to the platform as well existing games from other platforms and upgraded PSVR titles. The headset’s first monthly top download chart has revealed a big shift in which games are taking an early lead in the headset’s growing library.

Taking the top spot across the US & Canada, the EU and Japan is Kayak VR: Mirage, a kayak racing sim initially released on SteamVR headsets in 2022 by Amsterdam-based indie studio Better Than Life.

In it, players race across lush, photorealistic environments including ice caves in Antarctica, tropical locales in Costa Rica, storm waters in Norway, and the stark canyons of Australia. The paddling movement mechanic is also something that works really well in VR too, which we hope more games will make use of thanks to just how immersive it can be.

Horizon Call of the Mountain, undoubtedly a product of sizable investment by Sony, only managed to eke out third place in the US/Canada and the EU, taking second place in Japan, which is probably more than a tad disappointing to the Sony-owned developers Guerilla Games and Firesprite.

Horizon Call of the Mountain is a single-player adventure that showcases some of the best graphics you’ll find anywhere in VR. Combat could be a bit more fluid and climbing could have more interesting challenges, although it certainly stacks up to Half-Life: Alyx in terms of immersion. Check out why we game it a respectable [8.5/10] in our review.

Granted, Horizon Call of the Mountain comes with a premium price tag of $60, which may explain why it underperforms in unit sales in comparison to the cheap and cheerful $25 team shooter Pavlov and $23 Kayak VR: Mirage. There’s also to consider that it was the subject of a hardware bundle, however that included a voucher code and not a physical disk. As the PlayStation blogpost states, the chart is counting downloads and not unit sales.

What’s more, it seems the era of Job Simulator (2016) ruling the PSVR top download charts has come to a definite end—despite it and sequel Vacation Simulator both offering PSVR 2 versions. Job Simulator has ruled the download charts nearly every month without fail since it launched on the original PSVR.

Take note: the February download chart only accounts for the headset’s first week in existence (Feb 22-28). March’s chart should be another fairly interesting read, as we see whether these top spots remain, or falter as more users pick up PSVR 2 headsets. Check out the chart below:

PSVR 2 Games

Update (12: 00PM ET): Horizon Call of the Mountain was also included in a hardware bundle, however that included a voucher code and not a physical disk. As the PlayStation blogpost states, the chart is counting downloads and not unit sales. We’ve included this information in the article above.