The current state of virtual reality adult video games doesn't come close to reaching the medium's full potential for sexual exploration. Yet the promise of intimacy — or at least rubbing one out — in digital virtuality remains one of tech's most tantalizing possibilities for the future of sex.

We're far from reaching anything close to what that one uncharacteristically non-dystopian Black Mirror episode imagined. But the porn VR game community, from creator to consumer, is dedicated to getting us closer. Despite some faults, VR porn games tend to be light years ahead of standard live-action VR video porn, with small indie teams achieving incredible technical feats and genuinely interesting design innovations.

"The VR porn game world is definitely getting more sophisticated. Much more refined gameplay, more experimentation, better physics, and more immersive experiences," said Ana Valens, an adult games creator and journalist who covers adult VR games extensively. (Note: The author of this article knows Valens socially.) Now that the VR industry as a whole has settled on some basic, foundational best practices for game design, the adult VR community is reaping the benefit, too. "Even adult VR games that are primarily glorified sex doll games have far more advanced physics. In the latter case, it doesn't feel like you're just fondling a 3D model, but you're interacting with a real person...[like in the] immersive dungeon game Primrose Dungeon."

Also, "It's growing fast. The launch of the Quest and the pandemic created a perfect storm," said the self-described VR tech enthusiast who goes by Soren and runs the biggest VR porn game review aggregation website, LewdVRGames. Traffic to the site doubled in the past six months alone, while the rate of new game releases skyrocketed from every other month to practically every few days.

A week of testing dozens of titles in the adult VR games space gave an irresistible glimpse into what the near-future of embodied sexual immersion can be. But it also revealed glaringly significant cultural and technical barriers to entry that keep many on the outside of virtual reality's walled garden.

Aside from socioeconomic issues around cost and the need for enough technological proficiency to handle constant troubleshooting, the homogeny of who makes VR porn games further limits audiences.

"Most of the content...is developed by cis, male, heteronormative developers for cis, male, heteronormative males," said Ryujiro Kumazawa, Head of Developer Relations at the Japanese adult VR platform ImagineVR.

Still, the interest is there, with Kumazawa claiming at least a "sizable" amount of women and LGBTQ users. That small but growing audience will only be further encouraged by what Kumazawa identifies as a shift in adult VR games towards more "niche-ified" sexual content. Aside from BDSM (like FemDom by Citor3, Dr. Deviant, and Nympho Trainer), "We've seen hentai and even furry-porn emerge. It's exciting because it means it's more than a flash-in-the-pan fad and actually is growing deep roots into the cultural landscape."

But there's no denying that vanilla, hyper-realistic sandbox sex simulators still dominate, Valens said. She hopes to "see more VR games that break from vanilla penetration and sex and lean into more kink, leathersex, fantasy desires."

On the plus side, Valens hasn't personally encountered much hostility from adult VR game developers toward her or other marginalized genders and sexualities. More often, they're just passionate about smut and open-minded to folks and tastes that differ from theirs. Ultimately, that may be precisely the reason why erotic VR games can be so disproportionately and unexpectedly appealing to the sexually marginalized.

"There's much to be said for how queer women can walk into VR adult games and bend them toward their desires," said Valens, referencing the thriving queer modding community behind titles like Honey Select Unlimited.

What all three of our industry sources agree on is that adult games will play a huge role in VR finally going mainstream.

"As with any medium, adult entertainment drives adoption," said Kumazawa, hinting at the porn industry's history as a leading driver of innovation during the early web.

"Good sexual content and experiences consistently convince people to shell out top dollar. Just look at how popular high-end vibrators are," Valens agreed.

Now, I won't sugar coat this part: There are huge barriers to entry to playing VR porn games, both in cost and technical know-how.

As it stands, playing VR porn games is not beginner-friendly, with a nightmarish learning curve and technical struggles. These are highly stigmatized and policed games, with no central "home" (even Patreon has cracked down on NSFW devs in the past, though it remains the best option for now) and tenuous relationships to VR's corporate overlords like Facebook and Valve.

If you ask me, though, the experiences are worth it.

The first question to ask is what kind of gear you're willing to invest in. For that, check our how-to guide for watching VR porn with a breakdown on options. Adult VR video games often require more computational power, so you'll definitely want a dedicated device — ideally in addition to a VR-capable PC.

Oculus Rift, Quest 1 or 2, and HTC Vive are all solid options. Personally, we recommend a Quest. The standalone headset is reasonably priced ($299) and versatile, able to be souped up into the equivalent of Rift when connected to a PC via Oculus Link cable.

While there are increasingly more native Quest games you can play without a PC, a majority of current titles still require a computer high-end enough to run PCVR. Luckily, connecting the Quest to your PC through the Oculus PC app and a USB-C to USB-A cable is pretty easy.

As Valens explains in her guide on how to play porn games on the Quest, you will always need to basically jailbreak the Oculus in order to bypass the app store's censorship of all adult content. Native Quest porn games can only get onto the headset through a process called sideloading, most easily done through a third-party app like Side Quest.

Those using Oculus Link for PCVR games don't need Side Quest, but should follow the steps for turning on developer mode from this guide on how to sideload games onto the Oculus Quest. You should also download SteamVR, the app's home software for VR games. Steam is becoming a VR powerhouse in its own right, despite Valve's previously fraught relationship with sex in games.

Getting the most up-to-date builds of VR porn games often requires navigating labyrinths of developer blog posts, Discord servers, forums, and Patreons. After all that, there's still a high chance of spending money on a broken or underwhelming game. Quality control and user-friendliness are two major challenges of enjoying porn VR games. Which is where we come in.

Please note: We were limited to selecting titles we could access through free demos, a VRPorn.com Premium account, ImagineVR, and review copies from creators. Many are works in progress in active development via support on Patreon, which you should consider doing for full access to your favorites.

Aside from what we've curated below, you can also peruse the ever-expanding library found on LewdVRGames, Itch.io's adult VR games library, and Steam's adult games library (which requires manually checking for VR compatibility).

Why it's great: Offers a photorealistic virtual porn star strip club and a robot girlfriend experience simulator with subtle sci-fi storytelling.

What it's all about: The popular Holodexxx is widely regarded as the most photorealistic, graphically advanced adult game being made for VR. Aiming to be the future of adult entertainment, the team focuses on creating high-end mo-capped 3D scans of real-world porn stars like Riley Reid. The free demos currently offered are little more than lifeless, uncanny-valley virtual strip club imitations with said models, in my own personal opinion. It's all the sleaziness of an IRL strip club without any of the fun social interactions with the actual human being that make it appealing. There's even Holodexxx AR app allowing Android users to bring the virtual porn star into their own IRL surroundings — something boring live-action VR porn has been doing for years with equally underwhelming results.

The reason Holodexxx is worth the hype, though, is found in Home, the two-episode story mode (with a third scheduled to release soon) you must purchase for $5. The premise finds you in a not-so-distant, subtly dystopian future, where the company you work for provides a sexy AI robot (played by porn star Marley Brinx) to keep you happy. While only one model with limited customization is available right now, the narrative, world-building, and interactive features deliver on Holodexxx's promise to be the next evolution in porn. There's even a Studio DLC, where you can basically create your own porn scenes, sets, and photoshoots. Better still, the developer team clearly works closely with (and hopefully generously compensates) the porn stars they partner with, not only for the right to their virtual likeness but for the IRL porn videos you can watch on your virtual TV screen while pleasuring your AI sex robot in VR.

Paying for your porn, especially the sex workers who star in them, is essential to more ethical adult entertainment. We're hopeful Holodexxx will usher in a brighter future for consumers and the industry alike.

Platforms/Compatibility: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Rift S, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, PC (non-VR)

Price: Free demos, with story mode for purchase for $5 itch.io or a $2.50 to $5 a month Patreon subscription

Why it's great: This gorgeous sci-fi-themed sandbox delivers a vast variety of more kinky, atmospheric, and LGBTQ sex scene simulators with extensive character customization.

What it's all about: So maybe you're into the photorealistic stuff, but want to go further away from home than a vanilla VR strip club. Welcome aboard the S. S. Captain Hardcore, an unbelievably expansive sex simulator taking you into the final frontier of outer space fucking. With far more immersive world-building and atmosphere than most run-of-the-mill VR orgy sandbox, you're some sort of space captain scientist. Your mission in search of subjects to fill your big fancy spaceship with as many moans and bodily fluids as possible spans across the galaxy.

The full version of the game provides two main "work stations" or modes where you can customize practically every inch of each character you poof into existence. In the Biometrics Lab, you can conduct probing experiments, allowing for some light kink roleplay. The Cyber Masturbatorium chamber acts as a scene recording studio. Starting from scratch or from a preset, you can literally bend the characters to your will in every which way, choosing the positions and animations they simulate before recording it all for, uh, posterity or history or science or whatever.

Unlike Holodexxx and many others, this game does not assume your gender or genitalia. The character customization and scene selection options make it more LGBTQ-friendly, too. Kinksters might enjoy exploring the giantess preset. I didn't try it, but Captain Hardcore also promises some Bluetooth-enabled sex toy integrations allowing players to attach a controller or Vive tracker to a Fleshlight that connects to a character model's hip.

Platforms/Compatibility: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Rift S, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, PC (non-VR), Oculus Quest 1 and 2 (standalone build not requiring PC, but still in development and more limited)

Price: Free demo, with fuller access versions starting at a $5 a month Patreon subscription

Why it's great: You'll experience the true erotic potential of VR through a fully embodied, thoughtfully designed, consent-driven, intimate BDSM exploration where you play as the submissive to a pantheon of fantastical FemmeDom beauties.

What it's all about: Most of the games on this list are porn on steroids. But Dominatrix Simulator occupies a category unto itself, more like VR erotica than porn. While still packed with hot and heavy sex scenes, Dominatrix Simulator adds real-world immersion, encouraging you to play naked and making you "perform" IRL through VR's head and hand tracking capabilities.

You pick between feminine or masculine presentations, which the game describes as "gender fluid," with characters referencing the gender, pronoun, and genitals you prefer. You're then taught to respond "yes" by nodding or "no" by shaking your head (aka consent). Soon after, you meet the Goddess, the FemmeDom running this other-worldly BDSM dungeon. She gives you more commands to act out IRL, like getting on your knees, putting your hands behind your head, arching your back while spreading your legs open for her. I even got scolded for looking away at one point.

As in all responsible BDSM experiences, you can say no to anything. More impressive still, one FemmeDom requires you periodically stop by her office for a therapy session of sorts, or what the BDSM community calls "aftercare." She checks in on you emotionally, makes sure you're still enjoying yourself, and asks about any mental distress that might've come up from the roleplay.

It's a perfect beginner-friendly way for the uninitiated to experiment with BDSM from the safe distance of virtual reality.

Platforms/Compatibility: Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming, HTC Vive, PC non-VR

Price: Free demo on Steam or Itch.io, purchase standalone experience for $12.99 on Itch.io or Steam, or get the latest (ever-evolving) $5 or $10 a month Patreon subscriber build

Why it's great: This is the go-to hub for all things VR porn, offering a great game section bundle with many of the titles on this list for a bargain price and added convenience.

What it's all about: OK, this isn't a game. But trust me, it will save you lots of effort, time, and money. Instead of individually hunting builds and demos for each title, just buy a single month of VRPorn Premium. Then download all the games and deactivate it, since you got what you came for.

Aside from being curated by Soren of LewdVRGames, each game page gives essential installation instructions, as well as links to Patreons. The one caveat to note is that many of these downloads are modified builds with some restricted access — like a demo++, with content still blocked off for subscriber exclusivity.

I'd perhaps weigh your preferences between VRPorn's library versus a similar Itch.io bundle, though. Itch.io's might be double the price, but for the most part includes full access game builds.

Platforms/Compatibility: Everything, except for Oculus Quest headset-only setups

Price: $19.95 for one month (which is all you'll need to access the games)

Why it's great: Ideal for creators, this is the most in-depth, most customizable and moddable sex simulator sandbox with an endless library of community content.

What it's all about: When it comes to technical powerhouses of sex simulators, nothing beats Virt-A-Mate. But, with an in-game user menu that requires watching an hours-long YouTube tutorial playlist while referencing a Bible-length wiki, it's not ideal for everyone or even most. VR and/or porn game beginners will be utterly lost simply trying to install the game, let alone navigating the sex community's ever-expanding library of user-generated content.

I suggest newbies who still want to try skip going cold turkey into Virt-A-Mate and instead opt for the additional download of VamX, a user-made add-on package designed for more simplified user-friendliness that even comes with an in-game tutorial. You can either get it with a VRPorn Premium subscription or Patreon subscrption.

A serious word of caution before purchasing or becoming part of this community, however: A Vice report found that Virt-A-Mate was a source of extremely disturbing deepfake VR porn, giving players total control over the virtual bodies of women who did not consent to that. Virt-A-Mate has not addressed this concern publicly, but a OneZero article presents an alternative perspective on the ethics of this practice.

Platforms/Compatibility: Oculus Rift and Rift S, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming

Price: Free demo of Teaser build, with full access to Entertainer and Creator builds requiring $4 or $8 monthly Patreon subscription (respectively)

Why it's great: This subscription-based adult online multiplayer platform gives access to countless virtual worlds for cybersex with VR integration during player-to-player sexual encounters.

What it's all about: 3DXChat is predominantly a non-VR game, but it's also one of the only online multiplayer titles expressively made for virtual reality sex games. The VR can only be activated during sex, and can honestly look pretty horrifying because it knocks your avatar's head right off its body to accommodate your headset's POV camera.

That being said, it's got a decent but not overwhelming amount of character selection options, with tons of consideration for different identities, genders, orientations, and fetishes built-in. The enormous community, with its countless subworlds for virtual orgies, can be intimidating; I highly recommend beginners first get their feet wet with a computer-generated sexual partner. Though I could not test it myself, the game does claim integration with all Lovense Bluetooth-connected sex toys.

Caveats aside, I could see 3DX Chat being a great option for long-distance couples, folks wanting to slowly bring their virtual sexuality or gender-identity explorations into the real world, or perhaps even people who have certain disabilities and disorders that cause obstacles for having IRL sex.

Platforms/Compatibility: Oculus Rift and Rift S, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming

Price: Free demo, with online subscription starting at $9.99 a month

Why it's great: A thriving adult VR underground community is turning this popular Oculus-official online social game platform into a beautifully chaotic cybersex hornfest.

What it's all about: If we let you in on one of virtual reality's worst-kept secrets, will you promise to keep it on the DL? Well OK...VR Chat is low-key one of the fastest-growing, most beloved online multiplayer homes for lovers of adult virtual reality games around the globe.

Soren called it a "powerhouse" that's currently "exploding," publishing a guide on how to join the adult VR Chat community in the hopes of encouraging more folks to join. To be clear, VR Chat Is on the official Oculus app store and in no way explicitly for adult content. But those in the know can tell you exactly where to go to find erotic, community-built environments teaming with thirst trap-y, full-body, custom-modded NSFW avatars wanting a good time.

While Valens wishes there were more adult online VR games like VR Chat, she cautioned that it "opens up a ton of ethical questions worth exploring around multiplayer sexual experiences, consent, and personal boundaries in virtuality." She's written more on these tricky boundaries in other multiplayer game spaces.

Throwing yourself into the unknowns of erotic roleplay with virtual strangers and few established rules of conduct is a risk. Be sure to always participate with an escape route in mind in case you get uncomfortable, and be consistent about checking in on your fellow ERPers' (erotic role players) boundaries and consent. For many marginalized folks, though, taking this virtual plunge is worth getting to embody parts of your erotic self that the real world oppresses, shames, and stigmatizes. Indeed, Valens has heard that "a fair amount of trans women" make up the VRChat ERP community.

Sure, these virtual sexcapades very likely skirt the lines of one prudish corporate policy or another — as most valuable sexual expression online does. But we certainly won't tell Facebook if you don't.

Platforms/Compatibility: Oculus Quest 1 and 2

Price: Free-to-play download with in-app and community-generated custom content available for purchase in many virtual marketplaces.

Why it's great: Realistic sex is nice and all, but have you tried a waifu banging sex sandbox with hot anime girls and the Wii Fit guy instead?

What it's all about: This one pretty much says it all right in the title — but you'll definitely need the download and instruction manual posted on VRPorn to figure out how to play Waifu Sex Simulator. While pretty janky and rudimentary compared to other sex simulators, this hentai classic by Lewd Fraggy has a special place in many, uh, hearts.

With over 1,000 models — many based on animated hotties from popular games, movies, and shows — you're bound to find one of your faves, from Princess Peach to Genshin Impact characters. There are also 400 animations to cycle through, with a lot of sexual variety.

For something in between photorealism and anime-style VR porn games, check out adult games by Illusion like VR Kanojo (more of a girlfriend experience simulator) and the wildly popular (especially among queer women) Honey Select Unlimited.

Platforms/Compatibility: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming, PCVR, Samsung Gear, Google Cardboard, PC non-VR

Price: Free download, with only bonus content kept behind a Patreon subscription

Why it's great: This is a simple, sexy, expansive free introduction into VR porn's most popular category of photorealistic sex simulator sandboxes.

What it's all about: A VR version of a recommendation from our regular porn games roundup, these two extensive free demos pack more than most public builds of similar quality titles. It's also for a broad range of tastes, a perfect blend of an easy-to-use but still customizable poke-the-doll type virtual reality sex sandbox with decent controls to boot.

Be sure to remember that this is only a taste of Project Helius' full two-part game series, with Operation Lovecraft described as "A Cthulhu mythos-inspired deck building rogue-lite game featuring a wider array of fetishes: monster, tentacles, futanari, BDSM, and vanilla."

If you're up for a free demo that's more limited and censored, but with a tantalizing roleplay dynamic scenario, check out The Villain Simulator.

Platforms/Compatibility: PCVR, Oculus Rift and Rift S, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming

Price: Free demos for Origin and Operation Lovecraft, then an accumulative $36 of Patreon subscription support for full access to all games

Why it's great: Gives users an adult VR playground for sexual discovery and sex toy connectivity with experiences that are inclusive of a variety of perspectives, orientations, genders, and desires.

What it's all about: Similar to Dominatrix Simulator, the purpose of Viro Playspace is to explore sexual fantasies you might not feel safe or comfortable embodying in real life (yet). Winner of Forbes' 2019 Adult VR App of the Year award, it's described as a sex-positive, consent-focused erotic playground platform. There are nine downloadable experiences (or "dreams") you can purchase so far, the scenarios ranging from passive to active engagement, various positions, male and female POVs, and haptic feedback that corresponds the sexual stimulation happening in the scene with either a compatible Bluetooth-enabled sex toy or the VR controller's vibrations. There's plenty of standard heterosexual vanilla. But the most interesting scenes let you dabble in BDSM, furry, and LGBTQ-oriented desires.

According to the website, the team behind each experience included folks with the lived experiences, meaning it's a furry fantasy made by furries or a woman's fantasy made by women. Porn star and virtual reality pioneer Ela Darling, the team's head of marketing, contributed to the Viro dreamscape she's featured in as a character. Another scenario features V-Tuber (that's "virtual YouTuber," meaning a real-life human who gets digitized into an anime-style character) Vex Ruby, who has a permanent home on Viro's platform as the "most advanced live LewdTube streamer."

It's a shame, though, that not a single one of the nine fantasies breaks from the heteronormative binary, excluding explicitly trans, gender fluid, or women loving women perspectives.

Also, a word of caution on sex-toy integration: We've reported on the glaring connectivity issues with many of the Bluetooth-enabled sex toys advertised on Viro, and our favorite, most affordable and reliable sextech toy company, Satisfyer, is not compatible. Despite owning nearly all the high-tech toys advertised as compatible, I still couldn't get any of them to connect. After some troubleshooting and help from Viro, the connectivity was suspected of originating with my PC's poor BLE Bluetooth integration, which requires a cheap USB Bluetooth adapter that I did not have.

But just getting a preview of what the haptics do to the VR controller's vibration have me enticed. I imagine this is another good game to experiment with alongside a partner who's outside of VR and can stimulate you (or vice versa) during the virtual experience.

Platforms/Compatibility: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index, PCVR, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming

Price: Free-to-play download with one free preview experience, with the rest purchasable on Steam for $5.99 each. You can support the project on Patreon for bonuses.

Why it's great: Even if you don't identify as a furry, virtual reality porn is one of those things you just can't knock until you've tried it.

What it's about: I'm not one to seek out furry porn, but something about the medium of VR feels tailor-made to fulfill people's most impossible sexual fantasies. While Heat is your relatively standard, early-in-development furry treatment to the usual poke-the-doll sex simulator, it's also quite LGBTQ friendly, popular on Patreon, and the new rising star among furry VR games.

If you're hungry for more, Valens recommends DragonlayerVR and the FurryVNE (formerly Yiffalicious 2). Or if you're trying on a whole different fetish altogether, check out Resize Me, the giantess kink game.

Platforms/Compatibility: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index, PCVR, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Quest via link cable or streaming

Price: $10 a month Patreon subscription

Why it's great: Reminiscent of the golden era of web browser games from the early internet, this shows off the exciting potential for a VR porn browser game revolution with games that are much more widely accessible.

What it's all about: While this list is sadly lacking in many native standalone Oculus Quest games, simple games that can be streamed directly onto your headset hint at a more accessible future for VR games that don't require a PC. The VR Ero-Beat rhythm game in particular is charming and fun as hell, while still being pretty titillating.

"Because Facebook is very heavy-handed with its censorship, there's a growing demand for WebVR games that can be played directly from the Oculus Quest browser," said Soren. "These games don't require a download so they are able to bypass sideloading headaches and Facebook."

The biggest name in webXR adult VR games is currently RockHard VR, with five free virtual reality browser games ranging from standard sex simulators to this one, which is like a horny version of Beat Saber.

Platforms/Compatibility: HTC Vive, Oculus Quest 1 and 2, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, Windows Mixed Reality

Price: Free