According to an Instagram post from Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth, Meta is not shutting down VR support for Horizon Worlds after all. This reversal should come as a relief to its dedicated users. Bosworth made the announcement during an Instagram Stories Q&A, stating the decision to keep Horizon Worlds working in VR was made that very day. This came after a fan expressed they were heartbroken about the earlier plan to end support. A Meta spokesperson confirmed Bosworth’s comments.
Meta had indicated earlier this year that it would stop supporting the social metaverse app on its Quest virtual reality headsets. This was a significant concession for an app Meta once envisioned as central to socializing in VR. Ultimately, very few people wanted to socialize in a virtual reality environment. On Tuesday, Meta confirmed on its community forums that Horizon Worlds would move to web and mobile only on June 15, but that announcement was quickly reversed.
Even though Horizon Worlds will now remain accessible via Quest, the fact that Meta planned to shut it down is proof that the metaverse, at least as imagined in VR, turned out to be a financial black hole. The Reality Labs division at Meta has lost 73 billion dollars since 2021, the year Meta rebranded from Facebook. To put that loss into perspective, you would have to spend one million dollars per day for 200 years to spend that much money. Reality Labs also accounts for spending on augmented reality products like smart glasses, as well as some AI research.
According to the tech market intelligence firm IDC, Meta’s Quest headset sales were down 16 percent year-over-year from 2024 to 2025. This decline makes it seem unlikely the hardware will ever meaningfully compete with the smartphone. Meta is not alone in struggling to make virtual reality compelling. Apple had to scale back production of its thirty-five hundred dollar Vision Pro headset due to low demand.
Meta has responded to this decline by making significant cuts in its Reality Labs division in January, impacting over 1,500 employees and shuttering several game studios. Rumors suggest Meta is considering another, more significant round of layoffs that could impact 20 percent of the company.
Though Meta will continue supporting Horizon Worlds for the Quest headset, the company still plans to prioritize the mobile experience. Bosworth said on a podcast that Horizon had shifted focus to mobile since it had better product-market fit there. He stated there is a much bigger audience on mobile, and the app is having a really positive pickup. Bosworth explained the team was building everything twice, once for mobile and again for VR, and that focusing on mobile would increase their development velocity.
Mobile intelligence firm Appfigures reported that the Horizon Worlds mobile app has seen 45 million total worldwide downloads across iOS and Google Play, with 1.5 million downloads so far in 2026. That is a 53 percent year-over-year increase compared to the same point last year. However, Appfigures estimates consumers have spent just 1.1 million dollars in total on the app, which is pocket change compared to the size of Meta’s investments in the metaverse.
Bosworth is correct that there is a greater opportunity for Horizon Worlds on mobile than on the Quest headset, but Meta will need to see a lot more consumer spending for the app to prove a worthwhile investment.