Meta shuts down Horizon Worlds in VR to focus on a mobile-only app: here's what you need to know

Meta has announced that it is shutting down virtual reality version of the Horizon Worlds platform. The company made the announcement in a blog post where it stated that Horizon will now transition into a mobile only experience.

“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” Meta wrote in its blogpost

The Horizon Worlds VR platform will be removed the Quest store by 31 March while the app will also be removed from VR on 15 June. A

“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.” Meta noted

Notably, Meta had also made steep cuts to its Reality Labs division, the team responsible for its headsets and VR products. The company had cut nearly 1,000 jobs from the division in January while also shutting down three in-house gaming studios.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had such conviction around the Metaverse that in 2021 he rebranded the company from Facebook to Meta.

“Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers," Zuckerberg had said in a blogpost then

However, the Reality Labs division has reportedly been losing money and has suffered a loss of around $80 billion since 2020, as per a TechCrunch report.

Moreover, Meta will reportedly no longer produce new content on the Supernatural app that it had acquired back in 2023 and move it into ‘maintenance mode’.