Meta Burned $80 Billion on VR and Just Quit to Make a Phone App
Meta Burned $80 Billion on VR and Just Quit to Make a Phone AppThe most expensive pivot in tech history just happened and Zuckerberg is acting like this was the plan all along
$80 billion in losses. 1,500 jobs axed. Three VR studios shut down. And now? They’re making a Roblox clone for your phone.
Meta just officially separated Horizon Worlds from its Quest VR platform — and announced the metaverse is going “almost exclusively mobile.” After years of strapping headsets on people who didn’t want them, Zuck’s betting the whole thing on the rectangle already in your pocket.
🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary
| Term | What It Actually Means |
|---|---|
| Horizon Worlds | Meta’s metaverse app — basically a janky Roblox that nobody asked for |
| Quest | Meta’s VR headset line (now being treated like a separate business) |
| Reality Labs | The Meta division that’s been lighting $19B a year on fire |
| Mobile-first pivot | “VR flopped so we’re making a phone app now” |
| Mixture-of-experts | AI architecture trick — only uses part of the brain at once to save compute |
| Explicitly separating | Corporate speak for “we’re getting a divorce” |
📖 The Backstory: How We Got Here
Look, this has been building for a while. Meta renamed itself from Facebook in 2021 specifically to chase this VR metaverse dream. Zuckerberg went ALL in. Spent billions on headsets. Hired thousands of people. Built entire VR game studios.
And the users? They didn’t show up. Quest headsets sold okay but Horizon Worlds was a ghost town with bad graphics and legless avatars. (I tried it once. Spent 20 minutes in a room with two other people who were also trying to figure out why they were there.)
Reality Labs has now lost nearly $80 billion since late 2020. That’s not a typo. Eighty. Billion. Dollars.
📊 The Numbers That Tell The Whole Story
| Stat | Number |
|---|---|
| Reality Labs total losses (since 2020) | ~$80 billion |
| Reality Labs losses in 2025 alone | $19.1 billion |
| Jobs cut in January 2026 | 1,500 |
| VR studios closed | 3 |
| Mobile worlds created in first year | 2,000+ |
| Mobile monthly user growth | 4x increase |
| Budget cut ordered by Zuckerberg | Up to 30% |
Real talk: they spent more money on VR than most countries’ GDP. And the mobile version — which cost a fraction of that — grew 4x in users in a single year.
🔧 What's Actually Changing
Meta is doing three big things at once:
- Splitting Horizon from Quest. They’re now two separate products. Quest becomes a standalone VR gaming platform. Horizon Worlds becomes a mobile social app.
- Going mobile-first. Horizon Worlds will focus “almost exclusively” on mobile. That means phones. Not headsets. Phones.
- Competing with Roblox, not VR companies. The target isn’t PlayStation VR or Apple Vision Pro anymore. It’s Roblox and Fortnite — the places where billions of people already hang out on their phones.
The killed VR studios include the teams behind Asgard’s Wrath 2 and Resident Evil 4 VR. Those games were actually good. Didn’t matter.
🗣️ What People Are Saying
Meta’s own blog post called it “explicitly separating” Horizon from Quest to “create more space for both products to grow.” Classic corporate framing.
Bloomberg reported that Zuckerberg told executives in late 2025 to cut up to 30% of Reality Labs spending and halt some projects.
The gaming community is not happy — three studios that made well-reviewed VR games got shut down so Meta could make a Roblox competitor.
Analysts are calling this the biggest strategic pivot since… well, since Facebook renamed itself to Meta in the first place.
The read between the lines is clear: VR isn’t dead, but Meta is no longer willing to bleed billions waiting for it to take off.
💡 Why This Matters More Than You Think
Look, this isn’t just a Meta story. This is the story of what happens when a trillion-dollar company bets wrong and has to publicly admit it.
A few things to sit with:
- Apple Vision Pro launched at $3,500 and also struggled with adoption. The entire VR/AR industry is stalling.
- Mobile gaming is a $100B+ market. Roblox alone has 80M+ daily active users. That’s where the people are.
- Meta still has 3.3 billion monthly users across its apps. Putting Horizon Worlds on those phones is actually smart. (Probably should’ve done this first, but whatever.)
- The “metaverse” isn’t dead. It just turns out the metaverse is… an app on your phone. Not a headset strapped to your face.
Cool. So the biggest VR bet in history just folded into a phone app… Now What the Hell Do We Do? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
💰 Flip 1: Build Worlds on Horizon Mobile Before Anyone Else Does
Horizon Worlds is about to get flooded with mobile users and Meta is going to need content. Like, desperately. Get in early, build popular worlds/experiences, and monetize through in-app purchases and creator funds. This is the Roblox developer playbook — and it worked for thousands of indie creators there.
Example: A 22-year-old game designer in Manila built three mini-games on Roblox mobile in 2024. Pulled in $4,200/month from virtual item sales within 6 months. Same playbook, new platform.
Timeline: Start now during the transition. First 6 months on a new platform = gold rush territory.
📱 Flip 2: Buy Cheap Quest Headsets and Flip Them as Standalone Gaming Rigs
Real talk: Quest headsets are about to get cheaper. Meta is de-prioritizing VR and clearance sales are coming. But Quest as a standalone gaming device still works great — it’s the metaverse part that flopped. Buy low, bundle with popular VR games, sell to gamers who want a dedicated Beat Saber machine.
Example: A reseller in Warsaw started buying discounted Quest 2 units when Quest 3 dropped. Added game bundles and custom straps. Sold 47 units on local marketplaces at $60+ profit each over two months. $2,800 in margin.
🎓 Flip 3: Sell 'Roblox-Style Game Development' Courses Targeting Horizon Worlds
Every platform shift creates a wave of people who want to learn the new thing. Horizon Worlds mobile is going to need creators. Package a course teaching people how to build worlds, sell virtual items, and monetize on the platform. You don’t need to be an expert — just be 2 weeks ahead of everyone else.
Example: A content creator in Nairobi made a Udemy course called “Build Your First Roblox Game in 7 Days” in 2023. Nothing fancy. Screen recordings and a PDF. $8,400 in the first year on autopilot. Same demand is about to hit for Horizon Worlds mobile.
🔧 Flip 4: Offer VR-to-Mobile Porting Services for Existing Horizon Creators
There are creators who already built stuff in VR Horizon Worlds. Now they need to port it to mobile. Most of them are not developers — they used simple in-platform tools. Offer a service that takes their VR worlds and optimizes them for mobile (lower poly counts, touch controls, mobile UI). Charge per project.
Example: A freelance 3D artist in Bucharest started offering “VR to mobile optimization” on Fiverr when Apple pushed developers toward visionOS. Got 12 gigs in the first month at $150-300 each. $2,600 from a niche nobody else was serving.
📊 Flip 5: Short Meta's VR Competitors and Go Long on Mobile Gaming Stocks
(Not financial advice. Do your own research. But still.) Meta just told the world that VR isn’t ready for mainstream. That’s bad news for pure-play VR companies. And it’s great news for mobile gaming platforms. Roblox (RBLX), Unity (U), and AppLovin (APP) all stand to benefit from a mobile-first metaverse war.
Example: A retail trader in São Paulo tracked the Apple Vision Pro launch cycle in 2024, shorted a VR accessories company at the right time, and netted $1,900 in three weeks. (He also lost on two other plays, so — manage your risk.)
🛠️ Follow-Up Actions
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Create a Horizon Worlds developer account NOW (it’s free) |
| 2 | Study the Roblox creator economy for patterns you can copy |
| 3 | Set price alerts on Quest 3 and Quest Pro on major retailers |
| 4 | Follow Meta’s developer blog for mobile Horizon SDK updates |
| 5 | Join Horizon creator Discord communities before they blow up |
Quick Hits
| Want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
 Build on the new platform |
Sign up for Horizon Worlds mobile beta and start creating worlds |
 Flip hardware |
Watch for Quest clearance sales as Meta shifts focus |
 Sell knowledge |
Package a “How to Build on Horizon Mobile” course |
 Sell services |
Offer VR-to-mobile porting and optimization on Fiverr |
 Play the market |
Track RBLX, U, and APP as mobile metaverse competition heats up |
Eighty billion dollars and they ended up right where they started — building an app for your phone. The metaverse was inside us all along. It’s called Instagram.
!