1 in 3 Quest owners have downloaded Gorilla Tag, making it the most successful game ever on standalone VR. Gorilla Tag, created by studio Another Axiom, has emerged as a standout success in the virtual reality gaming space, not just as a game but as a cultural phenomenon. Launched in 2021, it has quickly amassed over 12 million users and generated more than $100 million in revenue.
Guest Article by JP Minetos
JP Minetos works on the Investment Team at Hartmann Capital, a frontier venture fund investing in Games, VR/XR, Generative AI, and immersive technology, with companies including Flat2VR, Sinn Studio, Tripp, and ShapesXR. JP focuses on VR and Social Gaming, and has worked closely with many top developers on the Quest store. His X account is @jpminetos where he shares data and perspectives on XR & the games market. Investment inquiry can be made via DM on X or LinkedIn.
While other games have seen success in VR, Gorilla Tag is unique in that it combines social interaction with a movement system that only works in VR. Much like other revolutionary free-to-play games, such as Fortnite and League of Legends, Gorilla Tag has carved out its own space by fostering a community-driven ecosystem that keeps over a million players coming back daily.
Its rise also signals the emergence of a new sector of games—those built exclusively for VR—driven by the immersive experience only this platform can offer. At the heart of this success is the game’s social nature, compelling gameplay loop, and creative use of free-to-play monetization. However, being primarily played by young teenagers, it sits outside the cultural zeitgeist as a popular game and isn’t covered to nearly the same scope as other successful titles. So why is Gorilla Tag so popular?
Why Gorilla Tag is Successful
Whilst VR falls short against other gaming platforms in compute power, the medium has an over powered feature for engagement: Player embodiment. Unlike flatscreen games where users control a character with a keyboard or controller while looking at a screen, VR players embody characters, making them feel as if they truly are the main character.
This means that spatially native social interactions are more akin to hanging out in real life, rather than zoom. The technical-social disconnect is heavily diminished. Gorilla Tag is at its core a social space with a game of ‘tag’ as the engagement loop. Similar to a poker night with friends or a pickup basketball game, the reason people play is partly for the game itself and partly social.
Gorilla Tag is designed with this in mind and is built to reflect the social nature of the game. Players spawn in a small hub inside of a tree. As soon as they step outside, they’re placed in a random social lobby and thrusted into the playground with a dozen others already there; no searching for servers or waiting for matchmaking.
Voice chat is turned on by default and doesn’t require a press-to-talk action. Players speak into the world, and everyone in the server can hear them. The audio uses spatial proximity chat, where voices vary in position and volume based on players’ physical locations relative to one another.
These circumstances foster natural camaraderie, as players form friendships with those they spend time with. They often ‘friend’ one another on the Horizon platform (Meta Quest’s Operating System) and create private lobbies to continue playing together at different times.
One of the most intriguing observations in user interactions is the natural adherence to in real-life (IRL) social norms. While kids may spam words, groups often physically gather, form social circles, make eye contact, and focus on the speaker. However, if a conversation becomes dull, it’s not seen as rude to leave and start climbing branches. There’s little dead social time or awkwardness. With enough people in a server, multiple subgroups often form, allowing players to hop between them or join a different server, given the ~50,000 concurrent users online.
A common critique among older Gen Z is the “death of the third place”—a space to gather outside of school/work and home. Social media has poorly filled this void, as authentic interaction feels fragmented and lacks the depth of real-life connections.
It’s clear that Gorilla Tag, predominantly played by boys aged 10-18, has become their third place. One-third of the game’s monthly players are logging in daily, with server activity peaking after school hours. Kids are drawn not just by the game itself, but by the chance to meet friends and play on a virtual playground.
To foster a social environment, users need to spend time in a dedicated space for interaction. While Gorilla Tag’s average session time isn’t publicly available, the average for Quest content overall is around 30 minutes—significantly higher than traditional social media. I estimate Gorilla Tag’s average session time to be even longer, similar to other successful VR multiplayer titles, around 60 minutes.
This would align with the average PC gaming session length of approximately 58 minutes (with the top 12% of players reaching 5 hours, making this a conservative estimate).
It’s important to note that these statistics reflect single sessions, and users often have multiple sessions in a day. However, Gorilla Tag excels in retaining users within a single social space, unlike social media, where users frequently jump between different threads or interactions.
Status and In-Game Purchases
The key question remains: how has a free-to-play game like Gorilla Tag managed to generate $100 million in revenue?
While the game is free on the Meta’s Horizon Store, it is priced at $20 on Steam, though the vast majority of installs—over 90%—are on the Horizon platform.
Prior to the mobile gaming revolution, most games monetized through traditional models such as paid titles, downloadable content (DLC), or subscription services like World of Warcraft. However, mobile gaming was a pivotal moment for the free-to-play model, which has since evolved to encompass more complex monetization strategies, including microtransactions in AA and AAA titles.
With 12 million unique users and $100 million in revenue, Gorilla Tag boasts an impressive figures for a free-to-play game. But how exactly does the game generate this revenue? The answer lies in in-game cosmetics.
Given Gorilla Tag’s emphasis on social interaction, players naturally seek ways to express their individuality and status within the game. Cosmetics offer a powerful tool for this, allowing players to personalize their characters in ways that reflect their personalities and achievements. This creates a sense of identity and social prestige within the community, especially when certain items become status symbols.
Within the game, there is a dedicated store area that players physically travel to. Hot and seasonal items are available on a rotating basis, often for a limited time, adding a sense of urgency to purchases. This setup mimics real-world shopping experiences and taps into scarcity-based consumer psychology, where players want to show off their unique or rare cosmetics to others in the game.
The in-game purchasing process is frictionless. Players can quickly browse and select items inside of Gorilla Tag with only one additional Horizon OS confirmation pop-up to finalize transactions. By minimizing the steps needed to make a purchase—and a browsing and try-on process that mimics real-life shopping—Gorilla Tag ensures that players can seamlessly acquire new items, making the buying experience smooth and unobtrusive.
As a result, players regularly purchase new items to keep their avatars fresh and distinctive. This constant cycle of cosmetic updates, combined with a user-friendly transaction flow, has proven to be a highly effective monetization strategy, leading to the game’s significant financial success, unseen before for free-to-play VR titles. Another VR title to surpass $100 million in revenue, Beat Saber, charges for the base-game, with additional revenue thanks to DLC offerings which add more songs and levels to the game.
