Meta’s VR metaverse is ditching VR

The new approach sets Meta up to better compete with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, which also offer user-generated experiences that can be played on your phone. Horizon Worlds originally launched for VR, but “to truly change the game and tap into a much larger market, we’re going all-in on mobile.”

“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,” Ryan says. “You saw this strategy start to unfold in 2025, and now, it’s our main focus.”

As for VR software, Ryan says Meta is focusing on supporting third-party developers. “While we’re proud of the world-class work from Oculus Studios over the years, among 1P and 3P apps, 86% of the effective time people spend in their VR headsets is with third-party apps.”

But Meta is still planning to make VR hardware; “we have a robust roadmap of future VR headsets that will be tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures,” according to Ryan. (That new hardware, which could include a new mainline Quest headset, might cost a higher price.)

After the not-so-successful bet on the metaverse, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg now sees AI as the new social media, a vision that could include AI-generated games that users can share with others on their feeds. “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,” Zuckerberg said on the company’s latest earnings call.