Meta Shuts Down VR Metaverse Horizon Worlds in June, Shifts Fully to AI

Meta has officially announced the shutdown of the VR version of its metaverse platform Horizon Worlds, effective June 15, 2026. The app will be removed from the Quest Store by March 31, with only the mobile version continuing afterward. Popular VR spaces including Horizon Central and Events Arena will become inaccessible on March 31, and creators will no longer be able to create, publish, or update VR worlds after June 15. The decision comes after Reality Labs, Meta's metaverse division, accumulated approximately $70 billion in operating losses since 2021, including $6.02 billion in Q4 2025 alone. Monthly active users remained in the hundreds of thousands, far from the mass adoption Meta had envisioned. This strategic pivot marks Meta's full shift from VR/metaverse to AI. The company plans to invest between $115 billion and $135 billion in 2026 capital expenditure, roughly double the previous year, directed toward AI infrastructure, data centers, and semiconductor development. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has positioned 2026 as the year to advance personal superintelligence, with focus on developing the open-source Llama AI model and AI-related projects like Ray-Ban smart glasses, which have already sold over 2 million units. The shutdown represents a definitive end to Meta's original metaverse vision that prompted the company's rebranding from Facebook in October 2021, signaling that even the largest tech companies must adapt their strategies when ambitious bets fail to gain traction.