Meta to shut down Horizon Worlds for VR headsets, shift focus to mobile

Meta Platforms has announced that it will discontinue its virtual reality social platform, Horizon Worlds, on Quest headsets, nearly five years after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg described it as the “next frontier” for the company.

In a community blog post, Meta said the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from the Quest store by the end of March and fully shut down on VR devices by June 15, 2026. The platform will, however, continue as a standalone mobile application.

The company said the move is part of a broader strategy to separate its virtual reality and Horizon platforms, allowing each to “grow with greater focus”. “The Horizon Worlds platform will become a mobile-only experience,” Meta said, adding that the changes are aimed at streamlining the Quest ecosystem through 2026.

Launched in late 2021 as a key component of Meta’s push into the metaverse, Horizon Worlds offered users a 3D virtual space where avatars could interact and play games. Despite significant investment, the platform struggled to gain traction and reportedly attracted only a few hundred thousand monthly active users.

The platform was overseen by Meta’s Reality Labs division, which has reported substantial financial losses in recent years. In January, the unit posted an operating loss of $6.02 billion. This was followed by job cuts affecting more than 1,000 employees, including staff at its in-house studio.

Meta had introduced a mobile version of Horizon Worlds in September 2023 in an attempt to broaden its user base beyond VR headset owners, drawing comparisons with platforms such as Roblox.

The company said it will now focus primarily on expanding the mobile version, while continuing to support VR developers separately.