Meta to Shut Down VR Metaverse on June 15, Shifts Focus to Mobile Horizon Worlds

New Delhi:  For years, Meta pitched the metaverse as the next great frontier of digital life - a place where billions of people would work, play, and socialise through virtual reality. That dream is now fading. Meta has announced that its flagship VR social world, Horizon Worlds, will be removed from Quest headsets and shut down entirely on June 15, marking a dramatic retreat from its once‑ambitious vision. 

The wind‑down begins sooner than that. Starting March 31, Horizon Worlds will disappear from the Quest store, cutting off new downloads. Existing users will lose access to perks such as Meta Credits, custom avatars, digital clothing, and other in‑world purchases. After mid‑June, the VR version will vanish altogether, leaving only a mobile app that Meta hopes can compete with mainstream platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. 

This shift comes after years of mounting losses at Reality Labs, the division responsible for Meta’s VR and metaverse projects. Since 2020, Reality Labs has accumulated nearly $80 billion in operating losses, including more than $6 billion in the final quarter of last year alone. Horizon Worlds itself never managed to attract more than a few hundred thousand monthly active users far below the billion‑user target once touted by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

The financial strain forced Meta to make painful cuts. In February, the company laid off about 10 percent of Reality Labs staff, eliminating roughly 1,500 jobs. Several VR game studios were shuttered, and even high‑profile acquisitions were wound down. Supernatural, a fitness app Meta bought for $400 million in 2021, stopped producing new content and has been quietly phased out. 

What ultimately changed Meta’s trajectory was the rise of artificial intelligence. The arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022 shifted industry focus, and Meta quickly leaned into its own AI research led by scientist Yann LeCun. With AI tools boosting ad revenue and investor confidence, Meta’s stock rebounded sharply tripling in value from its 2022 lows by 2024. In contrast, the metaverse continued to drain resources without delivering meaningful growth. 

By repositioning Horizon Worlds as a mobile‑first product, Meta is signalling that its future lies in AI and accessible platforms rather than expensive VR ecosystems. The company now frames Horizon not as a grand metaverse experiment, but as a social gaming app designed to compete in the same space as Roblox and Fortnite. 

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