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According to an Instagram post<\/a> from Meta\u2019s CTO Andrew Bosworth, Meta is not shutting down VR support for Horizon Worlds after all, which should come as a huge relief to, like, five people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have decided, just today in fact, that we will keep Horizon Worlds working in VR,\u201d Bosworth said as part of an Instagram Stories Q&A after a fan of the app reached out to say they were \u201cheartbroken\u201d about the decision.<\/p>\n A Meta spokesperson confirmed Bosworth\u2019s comments to TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Meta indicated earlier this year that it would stop supporting the social metaverse app<\/a> on its Quest virtual reality headsets, which was a big concession for an app that Meta once envisioned as central to socializing in VR. As it turned out, very few people actually wanted to hang out in VR. On Tuesday, Meta confirmed on its community forums<\/a> that Horizon Worlds would move to web and mobile only on June 15, but that announcement was quickly reversed.<\/p>\n Even if Horizon Worlds will now remain accessible via Quest, the fact that Meta planned to shut it down is proof enough that the metaverse \u2014 or at least how it was imagined in VR \u2014 turned out to be a black hole where Reality Labs funding went to die. That division at Meta has lost $73 billion<\/a> since 2021, the year that Meta rebranded from Facebook. As we pointed out<\/a> previously, you\u2019d have to spend $1 million per day for 200 years to spend that much money. (Reality Labs also accounts for spending on augmented reality products like smart glasses, as well as some AI research.)<\/p>\n According to IDC, a tech market intelligence firm, Meta\u2019s Quest headset sales were down 16% year-over-year<\/a> from 2024 to 2025, making it seem unlikely that this hardware will ever meaningfully compete with the smartphone. It\u2019s not just Meta that has struggled to make virtual reality compelling \u2014 Apple had to scale back production<\/a> of its $3,500 Vision Pro headset due to low demand.<\/p>\n Meta has responded to this decline by making significant cuts in its Reality Labs division in January, impacting over 1,500 employees<\/a>, and shuttering several game studios. Rumor has it that Meta is considering<\/a> another, more significant round of layoffs, which could impact 20% of the company.<\/p>\n Though Meta will continue supporting Horizon Worlds for the Quest headset, the company still plans to prioritize the mobile experience. Bosworth said on a podcast<\/a> with journalist Alex Heath that Horizon had shifted focus to mobile since it had better product-market fit there.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a much bigger audience in mobile, and it\u2019s having a really positive pickup on mobile,\u201d Bosworth said about the app. \u201c[The team] is having to build everything twice \u2014 they\u2019re building it once for the mobile phone, and they\u2019re building it again for VR. There\u2019s a pretty easy way to increase their velocity, which is just like, let them build for mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n