Meta is pulling Horizon Worlds from its Quest VR headsets, marking a significant retreat from the metaverse vision the company spent billions building.
Here’s the timeline:
<ul>
<li>March 24, 2026 – Hyperscape Capture social features are discontinued</li>
<li>March 31, 2026 – Horizon Worlds and Events leave the Quest Store; Horizon-specific Meta Horizon Plus perks are removed</li>
<li>June 15, 2026 – The Horizon Worlds app is fully removed from Quest headsets</li>
</ul>
After June 15, users won’t be able to build, publish, or update worlds in VR at all. Core Meta Horizon Plus gaming benefits are unaffected.
The platform isn’t disappearing entirely — Meta is pivoting it to a mobile-first experience on iOS and Android. The company is also separating individual Worlds from the main Quest Store to give traditional game developers more visibility, which suggests Meta is trying to reframe Quest as a gaming device rather than a metaverse portal.
This comes after Reality Labs, Meta’s VR division, has lost tens of billions of dollars over the past few years and shed over a thousand jobs. Meta’s broader focus has shifted toward AI and smart glasses, and Horizon Worlds — once the centerpiece of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse pitch — never attracted the user numbers to justify keeping VR as its primary platform.
Meta says it’s continuing to invest in Quest improvements, including a Surface Keyboard, customizable window positioning, and a new Navigator interface. So the headsets aren’t going anywhere. Just the metaverse part of the metaverse.

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Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds on Quest VR headsets by June 15, 2026, marking a major retreat from its metaverse ambitions. The platform will transition to a mobile-first experience on iOS and Android instead. Quest headsets will remain, with Meta refocusing them as gaming devices rather than metaverse portals. This follows billions in losses at Reality Labs and a broader company pivot toward AI and smart glasses.

Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds on Quest headsets in June 2026