4 weeks ago
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According to an Instagram post from Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth, Meta is not shutting down VR enactment for Horizon Worlds aft all, which should travel arsenic a immense alleviation to, like, 5 people.
“We person decided, conscionable contiguous successful fact, that we volition support Horizon Worlds moving successful VR,” Bosworth said arsenic portion of an Instagram Stories Q&A aft a instrumentality of the app reached retired to accidental they were “heartbroken” astir the decision.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed Bosworth’s comments to TechCrunch.
Meta indicated earlier this twelvemonth that it would stop supporting the societal metaverse app connected its Quest virtual world headsets, which was a large concession for an app that Meta erstwhile envisioned arsenic cardinal to socializing successful VR. As it turned out, precise fewer radical really wanted to bent retired successful VR. On Tuesday, Meta confirmed connected its community forums that Horizon Worlds would determination to web and mobile lone connected June 15, but that announcement was rapidly reversed.
Even if Horizon Worlds volition present stay accessible via Quest, the information that Meta planned to unopen it down is impervious capable that the metaverse — oregon astatine slightest however it was imagined successful VR — turned retired to beryllium a achromatic spread wherever Reality Labs backing went to die. That part astatine Meta has mislaid $73 billion since 2021, the twelvemonth that Meta rebranded from Facebook. As we pointed out previously, you’d person to walk $1 cardinal per time for 200 years to walk that overmuch money. (Reality Labs besides accounts for spending connected augmented world products similar astute glasses, arsenic good arsenic immoderate AI research.)
According to the IDC, a tech marketplace quality firm, Meta’s Quest headset income were down 16% year-over-year from 2024 to 2025, making it look improbable that this hardware volition ever meaningfully vie with the smartphone. It’s not conscionable Meta that has struggled to marque virtual world compelling — Apple had to scale backmost production of its $3,500 Vision Pro headset owed to debased demand.
Meta has responded to this diminution by making important cuts successful its Reality Labs part successful January, impacting implicit 1,500 employees and shuttering respective crippled studios. Rumor has it that Meta is considering another, much important circular of layoffs, which could interaction 20% of the company.
Though Meta volition proceed supporting Horizon Worlds for the Quest headset, the institution inactive plans to prioritize the mobile experience. Bosworth said connected a podcast with writer Alex Heath that Horizon had shifted absorption to mobile since it had amended product-market acceptable there.
“There’s a overmuch bigger assemblage successful mobile, and it’s having a truly affirmative pickup connected mobile,” Bosworth said astir the app. “[The team] is having to physique everything doubly — they’re gathering it erstwhile for the mobile phone, and they’re gathering it again for VR. There’s a beauteous casual mode to summation their velocity, which is conscionable like, fto them physique for mobile.”
Mobile quality steadfast Appfigures told TechCrunch that the Horizon Worlds mobile app has seen 45 cardinal full worldwide downloads crossed iOS and Google Play, with 1.5 cardinal downloads truthful acold successful 2026. That’s a 53% year-over-year summation compared to past year, erstwhile the Horizon Worlds app had astir 983,000 downloads astatine this point.
However, Appfigures estimates that consumers person spent conscionable $1.1 cardinal successful full user spending connected the app, which is pouch alteration compared to the size of Meta’s investments successful the metaverse.
Bosworth is close that there’s a greater accidental for Horizon Worlds connected mobile than connected the Quest headset — but Meta volition request to spot a batch much user spending for the app to beryllium a worthwhile investment.
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