When Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta in 2021, he positioned the metaverse as the company’s future, describing it as “the next frontier” and aiming to make it central to Meta’s identity. Less than five years later, that vision appears to be fading, with the virtual world at the core of this ambitious plan now nearing shutdown.
Meta has begun pulling back from its metaverse push. In a recent blog post, the company announced that the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from the Quest store by the end of March and will no longer be available on VR devices after June 15. Following this, it will continue only as a standalone mobile app.
“We are separating the two platforms so each can grow with greater focus, and the Horizon Worlds platform will become a mobile-only experience,” the company said.
This move comes shortly after Meta cut more than 1,000 jobs at Reality Labs, the division leading its metaverse development.
Back in 2021, the company’s rebranding from Facebook to Meta signalled a major commitment to building the metaverse, which was envisioned as a shared digital space where users interact in real time through avatars.
“Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers,” Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post at the time.
In reality, Horizon Worlds struggled to attract a large audience. Reports indicated that the platform never exceeded a few hundred thousand active users per month.
The financial impact has also been significant. Reality Labs has reportedly recorded losses of nearly 80 billion dollars since 2020. Earlier this year, the division also saw layoffs as Meta began redirecting its focus towards artificial intelligence and wearable technologies.
News of the shutdown, along with the scale of the losses, triggered strong reactions online.
“I forgot about this stupid s*** but imagine if they poured $80 billion into feeding the hungry instead of this failed cartoon universe that nobody wanted,” wrote one X user.
“Zuckerberg killed the Metaverse after burning $80 billion on cartoon avatars nobody used,” another said.
“Meta has announced it is shutting down its VR metaverse on 15th of June. All 5 users are reportedly devastated,” one person joked.
