Meta has walked back its decision to pull Horizon Worlds from Quest VR headsets, just one day after announcing the platform’s shutdown. The reversal, however, does little to mask a broader and ongoing retreat from the metaverse vision that once defined the company.
The about-face comes as Meta doubles down on artificial intelligence and mobile experiences, redirecting billions in capital away from the immersive virtual reality push that led it to rename the entire company in 2021.
Meta Reverses Course on VR Shutdown
A day after announcing it would remove Horizon Worlds from Quest headsets by June 15, Meta reversed course.
Chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth confirmed the decision in an Instagram story, citing fan feedback. He stated that existing VR games would remain accessible for the foreseeable future.
The original plan would have made Horizon Worlds exclusively available through its standalone mobile app, which launched in 2023.
Under the updated stance, worlds built using the Horizon Unity game engine will remain playable in VR, though no new games will be added to the platform.
“Most of our energy is going towards mobile and the Meta Horizon Engine there,” Bosworth said.
However, the partial reversal does not change the underlying trajectory.
A Metaverse Vision Running on Empty
Reality Labs, Meta’s VR and metaverse division, posted $19.2 billion in operating losses in 2025 alone. Cumulative losses have approached $80 billion since late 2020, while annual revenue has totaled just $2.2 billion.
Horizon Worlds never surpassed a few hundred thousand monthly users, a stark contrast to Roblox, which regularly reports over 100 million daily active users.
Meta has instead guided capital expenditure of $115 to $135 billion for 2026, with the bulk aimed at AI infrastructure. In January, the company eliminated roughly 1,000 Reality Labs positions and shut down several VR game studios.
The metaverse may still be technically alive, but Meta has clearly stopped betting on it.