Horizon Worlds is set to become a platform focusing ‘almost exclusively on mobile.’
Following significant layoffs at Meta’s Reality Labs, including the closure of VR studios and halting new content for VR fitness apps, the company is announcing a shift for its Horizon Worlds platform. Instead of targeting both VR and mobile, Meta is distinctly separating its “Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform,” with a primary focus on mobile, according to Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs’ VP of content.
This move positions Meta to better compete with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, which provide user-generated experiences on mobile devices. Horizon Worlds initially launched for VR, but “to truly change the game and tap into a much larger market, we’re going all-in on mobile.”
Ryan mentions, “We’re in a strong position to deliver synchronous social games at scale, thanks to our unique ability to connect those games with billions of people on the world’s biggest social networks. This strategy started unfolding in 2025 and now becomes our main focus.”
For VR software, Meta is concentrating on supporting third-party developers. While proud of the work from Oculus Studios, 86% of the time spent in VR headsets is in third-party apps.
Meta will continue developing VR hardware, with a roadmap for future headsets tailored to varying audience segments. This may include a new Quest headset, potentially at a higher price.
Comments from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth echo this strategic shift, as discussed in the Access podcast by former Verge staffer Alex Heath.
After a challenging venture into the metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg now regards AI as the new frontier in social media, possibly featuring AI-generated games for user sharing. “There are 3D versions of that, and there are 2D versions of that and Horizon, I think, fits very well with the kind of immersive 3D version of that,” said Zuckerberg during the latest earnings call.