(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google said it had shipped 5 million units of the Google Cardboard viewer, a wearable device that allows users to experience virtual reality through mobile apps.
The company, which launched the Cardboard viewer a year and a half earlier, said on Wednesday that there had been 25 million downloads of Cardboard apps from its Google Play app store. (bit.ly/1QDitxS)
Google has been exploring virtual reality for a while but the company dived into the concept this month by setting up a new division for virtual reality computing.
Oculus, the virtual reality company Facebook Inc FB.O bought in 2014, started accepting pre-orders this month for its much-awaited headset, Rift, which will ship in first quarter.
Google said in November that its video-sharing site, YouTube, supported virtual reality videos.
Viewers can watch virtual reality videos using a mobile device and the Google Cardboard viewer.
Google said more than 350,000 hours of YouTube videos had been watched in virtual reality.
Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey
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