Key Highlights:
- Meta’s long-term focus is moving from the metaverse to AI-powered wearables.
- Meta is shifting Horizon Worlds away from VR to a mobile-first experience.
- The company is explicitly separating Horizon Worlds from its Quest VR platform.
- Reality Labs has lost nearly $80 billion since 2020, prompting strategic changes.
Meta has announced a major shift for Horizon Worlds, its virtual social platform. The company is moving it away from immersive virtual reality and repositioning it as an almost entirely mobile-first experience. At the same time, Meta is explicitly separating Horizon Worlds from its Quest VR ecosystem.
This marks one of Meta’s clearest moves yet to step back from the metaverse vision it once aggressively promoted.
Why is Meta moving away from the metaverse?
The shift follows years of heavy losses at Meta’s Reality Labs division. Since 2020, the unit has reportedly lost close to $80 billion while developing VR headsets, virtual worlds, and smart glasses.
More recently, Meta cut about 1,500 jobs from Reality Labs and shut down several VR game studios. It also placed the VR fitness app Supernatural into maintenance mode, ending new content production.
Together, these moves signal a major rethink of Meta’s metaverse strategy.
What changes for Horizon Worlds?
Horizon Worlds launched in 2021 as a VR-only platform. It later expanded to web and mobile. Now, Meta says it is going “all-in on mobile” to reach a much larger audience.
By focusing on phones, Horizon Worlds will compete more directly with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. These services already offer large-scale social gaming without requiring specialized hardware.
Meta believes its strength lies in connecting games to its massive social networks, allowing real-time multiplayer experiences at global scale.
Is Meta abandoning VR completely?
Not entirely. Meta says it will continue developing VR hardware under the Quest brand. According to the company, future headsets will target different user groups as the market matures. However, VR is no longer the center of Meta’s consumer platform strategy. The company’s priorities are clearly shifting.
Where does AI fit into Meta’s strategy?
AI has become Meta’s main focus. The company is investing heavily in AI models and AI-powered wearables. During a recent earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it is difficult to imagine a future where most glasses are not AI-enabled.
Meta also reported that sales of its smart glasses tripled over the past year, highlighting where growth now lies.
What does this mean for the metaverse?
For now, the metaverse is no longer Meta’s headline ambition. By pushing Horizon Worlds to mobile and prioritizing AI, Meta appears to be quietly closing one chapter while opening another. The metaverse may still exist, but it is no longer the future Meta is betting on.
