Meta Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality social network app that launched in December 2021, will no longer be available in VR starting in June of this year.
Announced yesterday by the company, the Horizon Worlds platform will become a “mobile-only” experience. The changes are meant to “streamline” users’ Quest experience throughout 2026. Said changes begin with Meta Horizon Worlds, which will no longer appear in the Quest store by March 31. Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay worlds will no longer be available in VR either.
Then, starting June 15, the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest, and Worlds will cease to be available in VR. “After June 15, you can jump into all your favorite mobile-optimized worlds on the Meta Horizon mobile app,” Meta says.
Changes are also affecting the Meta Horizon Hyperscape Capture app, which is moving out of Horizon Worlds. Meanwhile, all Horizon-specific perks of the Meta Horizon Plus subscription will be removed. This included Meta Credits, digital clothing, avatars, and in-world purchases.
“We continue to invest in making your Quest experience better—recent updates have brought new features like Surface Keyboard and Touchpad, customizable app and window positioning, and we’re continuing to roll out Navigator, our modernized interface, to more users,” concludes the announcement.
Amidst multi billion-dollar losses and studio closures, Meta continues to believe in VR
Meta attributes these decisions to its “renewed focus” for this year, which was outlined by Reality Labs VP of content Samantha Ryan last month. The pillars for said focus include doubling down on VR, creating a better platform for developers, and betting on mobile via the Meta app.
“We’re explicitly separating our Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform in order to create more space for both products to grow,” Ryan wrote. “We’re doubling down on the VR developer ecosystem while shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile. By breaking things down into two distinct platforms, we’ll be better able to clearly focus on each.”
According to the VP, the company’s goal remains in empowering developers and creators as they build long-term, sustainable businesses. The claim, then, is that changing roadmaps will increase developers’ chances for success.
The outlined plans follow a series of layoffs, studio closures, and an ever-increasing loss for the Reality Labs division. Â Meta has regularly trimmed its workforce while intimating its long-term plan was finally coming together.
This year alone, it shuttered multiple VR studios housed within Reality Labs—Asgard’s Wrath maker Sanzaru Games, Deadpool VR developer Twisted Pixel Games, and Resident Evil 4 VR developer Armature Studio. Meta also laid off a number of employees at Batman: Arkham Shadow developer Camouflaj—reportedly leaving the studio with a “handful” of workers.
“We are meaningfully reducing our investment in VR and Horizon this year, but we’re growing our investment in wearables to capitalize on the momentum that we’re seeing in our position as a market leader,” Meta CFO Susan Li said during an earning call. “That’s the shape of the rebalancing of the portfolio so far.”
In late January, Meta’s Reality Labs division recorded an annual loss of $19.19 billion during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. This means the division has lost roughly $83.55 billion over the past six years.