VR fitness has been promising to replace the gym for years. In 2025, we’ve got enough data to assess what actually delivers results versus what’s a novelty workout you’ll abandon after three weeks.

I’ve spent the past six months rotating through the four major VR fitness apps on Quest headsets in Australia. Here’s what holds up.

Beat Saber: The Accidental Fitness App

Beat Saber wasn’t designed as a fitness app. It’s a rhythm game where you slash blocks with lightsabers. But Expert and Expert+ tracks make it genuinely effective cardio.

Calorie burn: 6-10 calories per minute on Expert difficulty. A 30-minute session on harder tracks consistently puts me in the 250-350 calorie range.

Long-term engagement: The game is genuinely fun, the custom song community is massive, and skill progression keeps you coming back.

Australian pricing: $44.99 AUD base game on the Meta Store. Music packs are $16.99-$21.99 each. No subscription.

The catch: It’s primarily upper body. Your legs barely move unless you deliberately add squats. On Normal difficulty, you might as well be waving at someone across the room.

Supernatural: The Structured Approach

Supernatural is the closest thing to a guided fitness class in VR. Coaches lead you through workouts in photorealistic environments, with new content added daily.

Calorie burn: 8-13 calories per minute for boxing, 6-9 for bat-based sessions.

Australian pricing: $29.99 USD per month (roughly $46 AUD). That’s more expensive than many gym memberships in regional Australia. No annual discount for Australian subscribers.

The catch: The subscription cost is hard to justify long-term. If Meta ever kills the service, your investment disappears.

FitXR: The Balanced Option

FitXR offers boxing, HIIT, dance, and combat classes. It’s the most gym-like experience of the lot.

Calorie burn: 7-11 calories per minute depending on class type. Boxing and HIIT are the most intense.

Australian pricing: $15.99 USD per month (roughly $25 AUD). There’s a free tier with limited classes that lets you try before committing.

The catch: Production quality sits below Supernatural. Some dance classes feel more like a mobile game than a workout.

Les Mills Body Combat: Real Fitness Pedigree

Les Mills brought their established group fitness brand into VR. The workouts are structured like martial arts fitness classes — warm up, increasing intensity rounds, cooldown.

Calorie burn: 8-12 calories per minute. Les Mills has decades of exercise science behind their class design, and it shows. You hit proper peak heart rate zones.

Australian pricing: $49.99 AUD one-time purchase, with periodic paid content expansions. No subscription. Best value for anyone who sticks with it.

The catch: Smaller content library than subscription services. If you need constant novelty, you’ll exhaust it.

What the Data Says

A 2024 study from the University of South Australia found that VR fitness apps produced similar cardiovascular outcomes to moderate-intensity traditional exercise when used consistently. The key word is consistently — VR fitness participants showed higher adherence rates at the 12-week mark compared to traditional home exercise programmes.

The Practical Recommendation

Best value: Les Mills Body Combat. Pay once, get genuine fitness programming. Supplement with Beat Saber for variety.

Best for consistency: FitXR. Reasonable subscription price and variety of class types make it the most sustainable option.

Best for gamers who want to get fit accidentally: Beat Saber. You’ll forget you’re exercising.

Best if money isn’t a factor: Supernatural delivers the most polished experience. Whether it’s worth $46 a month is a personal calculation.

None of these replace a proper strength training programme. They’re cardio tools. But if your Quest is gathering dust, 30 minutes of Beat Saber is genuinely better than another evening on the couch. That much is backed by the numbers.