In the bustling world of virtual reality gaming on the Quest platform, Animal Company has emerged as a formidable contender among free-to-play early access games. It’s been riding a wave of popularity for several weeks now, consistently outranking others in earnings. Even long-time favorite, Gorilla Tag, finds itself playing catch-up behind this new phenomenon. With its gameplay drawing inspiration from Lethal Company, Animal Company shows no signs of slowing down in its meteoric rise.
Animal Company has crossed a significant milestone that only Gorilla Tag had previously achieved—surpassing 100,000 user reviews on Quest. Last March, Gorilla Tag became the first to break this boundary, cementing its position as the most successful game on the platform, both in terms of user engagement and revenue generation.
In a surprising turn of events, Wooster Games, the creators behind Animal Company, have managed to reach this milestone at an impressive pace. Borrowing the arm-based locomotion from Gorilla Tag and the survival elements from Lethal Company, Animal Company doubled its reviews since announcing it had exceeded 1 million monthly active users (MAU) last month.
Just a month ago, Animal Company hovered around 60,000 reviews in the Horizon Store, while Gorilla Tag was slightly above 140,000. In just thirty days, Animal Company surged to over 108,000 reviews, with Gorilla Tag seeing a modest increase of 6,000 in the same period.
Data from independent aggregator VRDB reveals a significant uptick in reviews starting mid-March, suggesting a steady climb in player interest and engagement.
If Animal Company keeps up this momentum, it might just dethrone Gorilla Tag as the highest-rated game among Quest users. Of course, there are other measures to consider, such as active user statistics. Daily and monthly active users are crucial here—metrics where Gorilla Tag currently holds its ground firmly as the weekly top dog, but Animal Company is nipping at its heels.
However, all this user attention needs to translate into revenue growth for Wooster Games. Since last September, after turning on microtransactions, Wooster has stayed tight-lipped about how their financial success has paralleled their user growth.
Nevertheless, Wooster Games did share a positive update with Road to VR last month, stating the introduction of in-app purchases left the studio in a “strong and healthy position.” The revenue has been on a steady incline, doubling since December, the studio reported. But what’s more notable is the player base expansion; Animal Company now boasts over 1 million monthly active users, witnessing a staggering fourfold increase since December.
Meanwhile, the Quest platform is experiencing a demographic evolution, driven in part by the launch of Meta’s $300 mixed reality headset, the Quest 3S. Meta has noted a surge of younger players and free-to-play content, fueling revenue through in-app purchases, akin to what’s seen in Animal Company and Gorilla Tag.
The looming question is whether this upward momentum will turn into long-term engagement and financial growth. We’re all ears for updates on Wooster Games’ revenue figures—when, or if, they decide to reveal them. This will give us a clearer insight into the current standing of Quest’s top-earning titles. If Animal Company is anything like Gorilla Tag, it might already be raking in millions, even as early as last June.
