Menlo Park, California, March 19, 2026, 02:20 PDT
Meta Platforms is set to yank Horizon Worlds from the Quest store come March 31, with the app disappearing entirely from Quest devices on June 15. That’s the end of VR access for one of the company’s flagship metaverse offerings. Horizon Worlds will stick around on the Meta Horizon mobile app, but the company is phasing out related creator tools and subscription benefits.
This shift is notable: Meta’s big VR social play is pivoting to a mobile-first strategy. Back in February, Samantha Ryan, vice president of content at Reality Labs, made it clear—Meta was “explicitly separating” Quest from Worlds, with the platform now geared to be “almost exclusively mobile.” The Verge
Meta’s story hinges on reach. Ryan pointed out that mobile monthly active users surged over four times in 2025. Mobile-only worlds took off, jumping from none to upwards of 2,000. That shift nudged Meta to double down: the company is now “all-in on mobile.” Meta for Developers
Quest is also getting an overhaul. According to Meta, 86% of the time users actually spend in its headsets is on third-party apps, not Meta’s. The company plans to continue supporting outside VR developers, even as it works to tidy up its app store.
The company insists VR hardware remains part of its plans. According to Ryan, Meta has a “robust roadmap” lined up for new headsets targeting various audiences, though it’s dialing back on some of its social software offerings. TechCrunch
AI has overtaken the metaverse as the main theme. Back in January, Zuckerberg told analysts to watch for 2026, calling it “a big year” for personal superintelligence—the moment machines could surpass human intelligence. Meta has pegged capital expenditures in a hefty range, putting them at $115 billion to $135 billion. Now, facing those rising costs, Reuters reports the company is considering major layoffs. Reuters
This shift means Meta is now targeting a different crowd. The company says that making Worlds mobile-first puts it in a better spot to go up against Roblox and Fortnite. Horizon, for its part, never managed to capture the same VR social crowd as VRChat did in headset experiences.
Analysts didn’t mince words. Mike Proulx at Forrester described the move as “predicted and inevitable,” pointing out that Meta tried to center a mainstream social network on hardware hardly anyone has. Anshel Sag from Moor Insights & Strategy echoed that sentiment: “This was inevitable.” WIRED
But risk looms. Meta’s own reset suggests as much, and it’s not a wild leap: if Horizon can’t attract more users on phones, Meta will have scaled back one of the Quest’s rare native social features before showing whether the mobile app holds up by itself.
The schedule’s locked in for both users and creators. Meta confirmed Horizon-specific benefits tied to Meta Horizon Plus—its Quest subscription—will wrap up March 31. After June 15, the Horizon Worlds VR app goes offline, along with the option to publish or update VR worlds on Quest.
