Thank you MESHm for providing us with a review code!

DrumBeats VR was originally released on Steam VR as an Early Access title in 2019. In December of 2025 it launched and has been receiving regular updates since. While both the Steam VR and PlayStation VR2 versions advertise a starting set list of 21 songs, the Steam version supports community created songs and is more expandable in that regard. Another advantage of the Steam version is that it’s $10 cheaper. I have seen it on sale on the PlayStation store for $14.99, so that’s encouraging.

When you first launch the game it will ask if you want to complete the tutorial. I highly recommend completing it so you can learn that the left trigger controls the high hat and the right trigger manages the bass/kick drum pedal. VR-compatible foot pedals would be awesome for this game! You can replay the tutorial anytime by launching the Learn menu.

The game’s main menu has two options: Play and Learn. In the play menu you can do whatever you want in the Freeplay mode. I spent most of my time in the Arcade mode where you can play alongside a preexisting drum track. If you make a mistake, it will be noticeable. If you make too many mistakes, you will fail the song. There are multiple options to customize your experience; the auto high hat option is enabled by default. You can enable instant song fails or disable them altogether if desired.

Some songs were failing us without the auto hi-hat setting enabled. I’m guessing that the trigger needs to be pressed instead of hitting the hi-hat with the drumstick. During my Twitch stream I attempted to play this song standing and sitting down. In both cases the drums were moving around on me and causing me to fail the songs as a result. I’ll totally own to my failures for lack of coordination, but the drums moving around automatically is frustrating. The seated experience is more reliable, but it is still not immune from this issue.

I didn’t recognize any of the included songs, but my son knew the song Teenage Dirtbag. There’s a wide variety of music genres represented and I found the selection to be pretty good. My favorite song to play is Minigun which is electronica/dubstep. You can earn up to five stars for each song you play. At the end of each song you’ll get to see your accuracy rating, number of notes you hit/missed, and your max streak. Your score will then be submitted to the online leaderboard so you can compare your skills against other players.

I haven’t learned how to play drums, so I am a complete novice and didn’t know what the various pieces of an acoustic drum kit consists of. I stayed on the Easy difficulty and had a mixture of failures and successes. I like how the different drum notes are color-coded for the specific drum pieces, but there are some overlapping colors and I didn’t know which symbol or drum to hit at times. My son, who is familiar with drums, stated that the ride cymbal should be a different color from the crash and splash cymbals. My daughter, who takes drum lessons, noted that the hi-hat should have a noise when merely opening and closing them instead of just relying on hitting them with the drum stick. Rim shots are not possible either.

If you like the concept of “air drumming”, DrumBeats VR can be a lot of fun. The lack of foot pedals and physical feedback won’t scratch the drumming itch for serious drummers. DrumBeats VR is pretty family-friendly but there is a level with blood smeared on the walls and there is some mild language (d*mn) in the song lyrics for Teenage Dirtbag. The PSVR2 version is worth picking up on sale, but the Steam version is better overall for customization and a lower base cost.