Meta is shutting down VR social platform Horizon Worlds in further pivot away from the metaverse

Meta shutters VR Horizon Worlds. Meta will remove Horizon Worlds from the Quest store by end of March 2026 and fully shut down the VR version on June 15. The experience continues only as a mobile app. The platform never surpassed a few hundred thousand monthly active users. Reality Labs recorded a $6.02 billion operating loss in Q4 2025. This continues Meta’s multi-year pivot from its 2021 metaverse bet toward AI, following January layoffs and February restructuring in Reality Labs. VP Samantha Ryan cited the need for “two distinct platforms” to enable clearer focus. Alpha insight: The move is a quiet admission that hardware friction—not the social world concept—remains the adoption killer. Mobile may prove the real testbed, reframing Horizon as a low-friction Roblox competitor rather than a metaverse flagship. This signals the full immersive vision is being de-risked further into the 2030s.