Ping Pong Club Rallies With Hand Tracking On Apple Vision Pro

The first rally against the computer in Ping Pong Club feels enough like the real thing with hand tracking that you’ll be satisfied with its price.

Ping Pong Club is free, $3500 Apple Vision Pro not included.

Soon after that first successful rally of a ping pong ball back-and-forth across the virtual table you’ll want to grab a physical paddle. Unfortunately, at writing time, that simply doesn’t make sense with Vision Pro. I grabbed a real paddle and couldn’t get it aligned with the virtual handle in the game.

Technically, I could strap a Quest 3 headset on top of the Vision Pro while holding a Quest 3 controller in my hand to get a haptic-capable paddle visible inside Apple’s headset. Unfortunately, the doubled visual latency would likely make me hate having hands.

On Vision Pro, I met up with a friend who downloaded the game on his headset. We couldn’t get direct invites to work so we ended up using the quick match feature to find one another. The headsets found each other online instantly, suggesting we were the only Vision Pro owners globally playing what seems to be the best table tennis game available on Apple devices in May 2025.

On Quest 3 and other headsets, holding a single tracked controller in ElevenVR provides precision tracking at high speeds. This is key for things like serves or any fast-moving shots and the robust fan-base for the game makes it one of the world’s largest clubs for table tennis. It’s so well-loved that real-world locations and tournaments incorporate ElevenVR in various ways. The game even allows for a step further in immersion by fitting the controller into any number of 3-D printed accessories made in the shape of a ping pong paddle. In the past, I’ve been directed to a plastic accessory that turns a AAA battery into a AA battery in order to shave a few grams off the inside of a Quest controller, coming as close to 1:1 simulation as you can get with consumer-grade VR over the last half decade. Key to the feel of ElevenVR, in addition to precise high-speed controller tracking, is a paired haptic effect felt in the grip of your hand indicating collision with the ball. ElevenVR’s simulation is so well-loved that it stands as one of the medium’s best games. People who compete competitively in ElevenVR at the highest levels are good at the game outside headsets too.

In Table Tennis Club on Apple Vision Pro, the table appears at a reasonable distance and the seemingly correct height from the floor. Play is in passthrough mixed reality by default but you can set it to a custom environment for full VR. The table rolls over to a new location with a pinch. There’s no on-screen text to explain why standing over the table turns the ball slightly red. The ball also floats like a magic orb above the off-hand, meaning you’re just supposed to slap through it with the paddle shown floating inside your dominant hand’s grip. Only when the ball is white, not red. Again, none of this is explained.

Still, I vibed with my Apple Music playlist and rallied from my couch.

Yes, Apple Vision Pro is missing low latency high speed tracked objects. Rallying a ball solo with hand tracking is still fun here.

Yes, Meta Quest 3S for $300 with tracked controller in ElevenVR takes this experience to the next level and makes competitive ping pong with satisfying haptics available to orders of magnitude more people.

For games like mini golf or table tennis, though, when hand tracking is done well, I believe it can be good enough for at least solo play. Only when you get really competitive, either with yourself or others, do you really need or want the precision of tracked controllers.

I was already in my Vision Pro, sitting on the couch, when I realized I wanted to play ping pong. So I opened the app and played it there solo against the computer for some time before realizing I wasn’t playing as well as I would if I had a greater range of motion than just relaxing back on the couch. This is obvious, of course, but sometimes you just want to smack a ball and have it come back. Table Tennis Club meets me there immediately.

In the same scenario with Quest 3, I’d be directed to go grab my controller the moment I tried to launch ElevenVR. Vision Pro owners readily accept that their headset needs low latency tracked objects to match or exceed the experience Quest owners get out of the box in simulations of games like table tennis. Can ElevenVR owners accept the idea that solo play against the computer might be fine in their game with hand tracking only? And that ElevenVR’s community would likely be better off for the influx of players who get drawn in by the nice physical simulation on display, who then go grab their controllers for multiplayer and a better solo experience?

Table Tennis Club is available from Vitali Ampilogov on the Apple App Store. I reached out to the developer over email to ask for more information about the project, and the dev shared video of their first prototype from December, made in three hours.

Over three weeks 3D models for the table and paddles were integrated, as well as AI. The first version was released by year end.

Ampilogov originally launched the game with a subscription model limiting players to 150 balls per day.

“To say this was unpopular would be an understatement,” the developer wrote of the release. “The strong negative feedback led me to quickly pivot, removing the subscription and prioritizing positive App Store reviews.”

Enthusiasm built, though, “especially given the limited selection of fun games on the platform,” and players reached out to contribute.

“This organic enthusiasm led me to form a small, passionate volunteer team of VisionOS enthusiasts: two engineers, a data analyst, and a UX designer. I still handle most of the engineering, UX design, 3D modeling, and product management, but the team’s input has been invaluable.”

Apple held a developer event in Cupertino in early 2025 and “we received actionable feedback on VisionOS best practices.” The developer says they’re still evaluating monetization options with a roadmap of plans for the game.

“With a modest user base (50 daily, 300 weekly, 1,000 monthly active players), generating significant revenue is challenging, so we’re comfortable keeping the game free for now to grow our community,” the developer wrote.