Vinay Kumar
Nearly five years after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hailed Horizon Worlds as “the next frontier” for the Facebook-parent, the company has announced that it is now shutting down the virtual reality social network for Quest headsets. In a community blog post, Meta noted that the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from the Quest store at the end of March and fully discontinued on VR devices by June 15, 2026. After that date, the platform will continue only as a standalone mobile app, which Meta says will allow each platform to “grow with greater focus.” “Earlier this year, we shared an update on our renewed focus for VR and Horizon. We are separating the two platforms so each can grow with greater focus, and the Horizon Worlds platform will become a mobile-only experience. This separation will extend across our ecosystem, including our mobile app. To support this vision, we are making the following changes to streamline your Quest experience throughout 2026,” said Meta in a blog post.
A costly Metaverse bet of the company
Facebook-parent Meta launched the Horizon Worlds in late 2021 as a central piece of Meta’s pivot to the metaverse. The app offered a 3D social space where avatars could easily interact and play games. Despite the heavy investment, the platform struggled to attract users and it never really managed to surpass a a few hundred thousand monthly actives.Horizon World was managed by Meta’s Reality Labs unit which posted billions in quarterly losses since its reception. In January, the division reported an operating loss of $6.02 billion. Weeks later, Meta cut more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs, including staff at Ouro Interactive, an in-house studio that had been building first-party content for Horizon Worlds.In September 2023, Meta also started offering a mobile version of Horizon Worlds. With this move, the company aimed to model the platform after platforms like Roblox to reach users without VR headsets. The company now says it will focus almost exclusively on mobile, while continuing to support VR developers separately. Samantha Ryan, Vice President of Content at Reality Labs, explained in a February blog post: “By breaking things down into two distinct platforms, we’ll be better able to clearly focus on each.”
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Meta’s steps to streamline Quest experience
In the blog post, Meta also streamlined the process of maintaining the Quest experience. “To support this vision, we are making the following changes to streamline your Quest experience throughout 2026.
- Meta Horizon Worlds: By March 31, 2026, Horizon Worlds and Events will no longer appear in the Store on Quest. Also, Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay worlds will no longer be available in VR. You can still jump into your other favorite worlds in VR until June 15, 2026, after which the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest, and Worlds will no longer be available in VR. After June 15, you can jump into all your favorite mobile-optimized worlds on the Meta Horizon mobile app.
- Meta Horizon Hyperscape Capture (Beta): By March 24, 2026, viewing Hyperscape captures is moving out of Horizon Worlds. Your existing captures will remain viewable within the Hyperscape Capture (Beta) app and the companion Preview app, which are available in your Quest app library. You can continue capturing new Hyperscapes, but sharing, inviting, and co-experiencing Hyperscapes with others will no longer be supported.
- Meta Horizon Plus (MH+) Perks: By March 31, 2026, Horizon-specific perks — including Meta Credits, Digital Clothing, Avatars and In-World Purchases — will be removed from the subscription. Your core MH+ gaming benefits and monthly games will not be affected,” said Meta.
