Google announced that it has shipped 5 million units of the Google Cardboard viewer since the wearable VR device launched a year and a half ago.
Clay Bavor, Google’s VP of VR, published a blog post, titled ‘(Un)folding a virtual journey with Google Cardboard’, which unveiled some interesting statistics.
Consumers have already downloaded 25 million Cardboard-specific apps from the Google Play store. The most popular Cardboard apps so far, according to Bavor, are: Chair in a room, Verse, Lamper VR: Firefly Rescue, Caaaaard-board!, and Proton Pulse.
Watching videos with Cardboard has also been popular since November, when Google announced YouTube support for virtual reality content – allowing viewers on mobile devices to watch videos in VR with the Cardboard headset. More than 350 million hours of VR video has been watched on YouTube via Cardboard.
Since the Cardboard camera launched in December, a feature which allows users to turn the smartphone in their pocket into a VR camera, more than 750,000 VR photos have been taken.
Cardboard has also been a big hit in the classroom thanks to the company’s Expeditions project, which allows viewers to take virtual field trips to over 150 locations around the world, such as the White House and Buckingham Palace. So far, over 500,000 students have gone on one of these ‘Expeditions’.
Google has been involved in VR development for quite some time now. However, it wasn’t until earlier this month that the company established a division dedicated to virtual reality computing .
Bavor said in the blog post that there are more VR-related projects are in the pipeline.
He said: “While you’ve been traveling the world and beyond with Cardboard, we’ve been on a journey, too. Keep your eyes peeled for more projects that bring creative, entertaining and educational experiences to mobile VR.