In accordance with an Instagram post from Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth, Meta just isn’t shutting down VR assist for Horizon Worlds in spite of everything, which ought to come as an enormous aid to, like, 5 folks.
“Now we have determined, simply at present in truth, that we are going to hold Horizon Worlds working in VR,” Bosworth stated as a part of an Instagram Tales Q&A after a fan of the app reached out to say they had been “heartbroken” concerning the resolution.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed Bosworth’s feedback to TechCrunch.
Meta indicated earlier this 12 months that it could cease supporting the social metaverse app on its Quest digital actuality headsets, which was an enormous concession for an app that Meta as soon as envisioned as central to socializing in VR. Because it turned out, only a few folks truly wished to hang around in VR. On Tuesday, Meta confirmed on its community forums that Horizon Worlds would transfer to net and cellular solely on June 15, however that announcement was shortly reversed.
Even when Horizon Worlds will now stay accessible through Quest, the truth that Meta deliberate to close it down is proof sufficient that the metaverse — or at the very least the way it was imagined in VR — turned out to be a black gap the place Actuality Labs funding went to die. That division at Meta has misplaced $73 billion since 2021, the 12 months that Meta rebranded from Fb. As we identified beforehand, you’d must spend $1 million per day for 200 years to spend that a lot cash. (Actuality Labs additionally accounts for spending on augmented actuality merchandise like sensible glasses, in addition to some AI analysis.)
In accordance with the IDC, a tech market intelligence agency, Meta’s Quest headset gross sales had been down 16% year-over-year from 2024 to 2025, making it appear unlikely that this {hardware} will ever meaningfully compete with the smartphone. It’s not simply Meta that has struggled to make digital actuality compelling — Apple needed to cut back manufacturing of its $3,500 Imaginative and prescient Professional headset because of low demand.
Meta has responded to this decline by making important cuts in its Actuality Labs division in January, impacting over 1,500 workers and shuttering a number of recreation studios. Rumor has it that Meta is contemplating one other, extra important spherical of layoffs, which may affect 20% of the corporate.
Although Meta will proceed supporting Horizon Worlds for the Quest headset, the corporate nonetheless plans to prioritize the cellular expertise. Bosworth said on a podcast with journalist Alex Heath that Horizon had shifted focus to cellular because it had higher product-market match there.
“There’s a a lot larger viewers in cellular, and it’s having a very optimistic pickup on cellular,” Bosworth stated concerning the app. “[The team] is having to construct every part twice — they’re constructing it as soon as for the cell phone, and so they’re constructing it once more for VR. There’s a fairly straightforward approach to improve their velocity, which is rather like, allow them to construct for cellular.”
Cell intelligence agency Appfigures advised TechCrunch that the Horizon Worlds cellular app has seen 45 million complete worldwide downloads throughout iOS and Google Play, with 1.5 million downloads up to now in 2026. That’s a 53% year-over-year improve in comparison with final 12 months, when the Horizon Worlds app had round 983,000 downloads at this level.
Nonetheless, Appfigures estimates that buyers have spent simply $1.1 million in complete client spending on the app, which is pocket change in comparison with the dimensions of Meta’s investments within the metaverse.
Bosworth is correct that there’s a better alternative for Horizon Worlds on cellular than on the Quest headset — however Meta might want to see much more client spending for the app to show a worthwhile funding.
