RIP, metaverse. Long live artificial intelligence (AI).
Raising a white flag from its original vision of a headset-centric metaverse, Meta Platforms Inc. on Wednesday said it will shutter Horizon Worlds on its Quest VR platforms.
The virtual social network, once the centerpiece of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2021 rebrand from Facebook, will be removed from the Quest store by the end of March and fully deactivated for VR users on June 15.
Following the June deadline, Horizon Worlds will exist exclusively as a standalone mobile experience for iOS and Android.
Meta framed the move as a strategic decoupling, stating that separating the platforms allows each to grow with “greater focus.” Samantha Ryan, vice president of content at Reality Labs, noted that by shifting the focus almost entirely to mobile, the company can better manage the two distinct ecosystems.
This transition effectively turns Horizon Worlds into a competitor for platforms like Roblox, providing an entry point for users who do not own—or have lost interest in—expensive VR hardware.
The decision follows a period of significant struggle for Meta’s metaverse ambitions.
Despite Zuckerberg’s hope to reach 1 billion users, Horizon Worlds rarely surpassed a few hundred thousand monthly actives. At the same time, Reality Labs has been a massive drain on resources, reporting an operating loss of $6.02 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone.
In early 2026, Meta cut more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs, including teams at Ouro Interactive, the in-house studio dedicated to Horizon Worlds content.
The Metaverse First mantra of 2021 has been replaced by an aggressive pivot toward AI. As the public remained skeptical of VR social spaces, Meta began redirecting its massive capital toward AI infrastructure. In November 2025, the company pledged $600 billion to construct large-scale AI data centers across the United States.
While the metaverse isn’t being deleted entirely, its footprint is shrinking. By removing Horizon Worlds from the Quest store and sunsetting environments like Horizon Central and Bobber Bay in VR, Meta is signaling that the future of its social ecosystem lies in the pockets of smartphone users rather than on the faces of early adopters.
