Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds on its Quest VR headsets and moving the platform to mobile as part of a broader shift in its approach to and will instead be virtual reality.
In an update to users yesterday, Meta said it is “separating the two platforms so each can grow with greater focus,” confirming that Horizon Worlds will no longer be supported in VR and will instead continue as a mobile-only experience.
“By March 31, 2026, Horizon Worlds and Events will no longer appear in the Store on Quest,” the company said. “After June 15, the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest.”
Meta’s clearest explanation is structural. The company is splitting Horizon Worlds from its VR ecosystem to allow both to develop independently. That means Horizon will no longer be tied to Quest headsets and will instead be repositioned as a mobile-first platform.
Emmanuel Umahi
The move suggests Meta sees more long-term growth in expanding Horizon beyond VR, rather than limiting it to headset users.
Meta also framed the shutdown as part of a wider effort to simplify its VR platform. “To support this vision, we are making the following changes to streamline your Quest experience throughout 2026,” the company said in its update.
As part of that process, Horizon Worlds — along with several of its features and perks — is being removed from the Quest ecosystem entirely.
The decision comes after significant internal changes. According to reporting by WIRED, Meta cut around 10% of employees in its Reality Labs division earlier this year, indicating a pullback in parts of its VR and metaverse investment. Those cuts provide context for the shutdown, suggesting the company is prioritising other areas of its business.
While Meta has not explicitly cited user numbers, external reporting points to weak adoption as a key factor. Horizon Worlds faced criticism early on and remained less popular than competing platforms like VRChat, despite heavy investment in events and partnerships.
Analysts cited by WIRED say the core issue was demand. “Meta was trying to solve for a consumer problem that doesn’t exist,” said Mike Proulx of Forrester. “You can’t build a mass social platform reliant on hardware most people neither own nor want to wear for more than short bursts.”
The lack of users also had downstream effects on revenue. “Advertisers follow their target audiences,” Proulx said. “And those audiences were never inside Horizon Worlds.”
Without a large or stable user base, the platform struggled to become commercially viable at scale. Meta says Horizon Worlds will continue as a mobile experience, while the company maintains its broader investment in VR hardware.
“We have a robust road map of future VR headsets… and Meta remains the single biggest investor in the VR industry,” the company said in a statement cited by WIRED.
Emmanuel Umahi
