Meta has officially announced it will shut down the Horizon Worlds VR version on June 15, 2026, pivoting entirely to a mobile-only app. The metaverse bet, launched with the company's 2021 rebranding, ends with cumulative losses of $83.55 billion and a daily active user count that once dipped below 900.
Highest Cost Per User in Tech History
According to CNBC, Meta's Reality Labs division has posted cumulative losses of $83.55 billion since 2020. In 2025 alone, it burned $19.19 billion while generating only $2.2 billion in revenue — a loss nearly nine times revenue. The fourth quarter of 2025 saw a single-quarter loss of $6.02 billion, averaging about $67 million per day.
User data paints an equally grim picture. Monthly active users stayed below 200,000 for extended periods, and daily active users dropped to under 900 at one point. Most users exited Horizon Worlds within a month of joining. The Quest store will remove related apps by the end of March 2026, with the VR version fully disabled on June 15.
From 'Next Frontier' to Mobile-Only
In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook to Meta, declaring: 'Our vision is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people and host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce.' Six years later, reality delivered a brutal verdict: monthly users below 200,000, daily users in triple digits.
Meta said in a statement: 'We split the two platforms to let each grow more focused. Horizon Worlds will become a pure mobile experience.' The mobile app will operate similarly to Roblox, but the core vision of VR social has ended.
1,000+ Jobs Cut: From Reality Labs to Ouro Interactive
The shutdown directly affects over 1,000 employees. Collaborating studio Ouro Interactive has been closed. Meta had already cut 10% of its metaverse-related workforce in 2025. This closure marks the final reckoning.
The company's focus has shifted entirely to AI. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are the new flagship product line, with AR replacing VR as the hardware priority. Despite closing the VR version, Meta still plans to invest $150 million into VR developer ecosystem in 2025, now targeting professional tools and gaming rather than social worlds.
End of the Metaverse Narrative: A Mirror for Web3
The fall of Horizon Worlds extends beyond one company's failure. In 2021–2022, the metaverse was one of the hottest narratives in crypto — Decentraland land was priced at millions, The Sandbox attracted brand after brand, and NFT virtual real estate became a byword for speculation.
Meta's exit magnifies the bubble's essence: immature technology, high user friction, and no killer app. Even with a billion-user base and unlimited capital, Meta could not sustain an organic virtual world. For Web3 protocols still building open metaverses, this ending is both a warning and a vacated space. With the biggest competitor walking away, the next question is who will find a real reason for people to stay.