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Horizon Worlds

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Horizon Worlds
Information
Type Social VR
Developer Meta Platforms
Operating System Meta Horizon OS, iOS, Android, web browser
Devices Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest Pro, Oculus Rift S, smartphones, desktop
Release Date December 9, 2021 (VR, US and Canada)
Price Free
Website https://horizon.meta.com/


Horizon Worlds is a social virtual reality and user-generated content platform built by Meta Platforms in which users create and explore three-dimensional spaces, play games, and socialize through customizable avatars. It opened to everyone aged 18 and over in the United States and Canada on December 9, 2021, after an invite-only beta that had opened in August 2020.[1][2]

The platform was a centerpiece of Meta's metaverse strategy after the company renamed itself from Facebook in October 2021. It began as a VR-only experience for the Meta Quest line of headsets, then added web and mobile clients in 2023.[3] Despite a multi-billion-dollar investment, it struggled to retain users, and in early 2026 Meta announced it would refocus the platform on mobile.[4] Meta later kept existing worlds playable on Quest headsets but stopped developing new VR worlds.[5] At Meta Connect 2026 in September, Meta presented Horizon Create, a mobile app for building and remixing games with AI assistance,[6] which Android Central described as "a total reboot of the company's Horizon Worlds platform."[7]

Reviewed 25 September 2026. 2026 mobile refocus, VR status changes, Navigator changes and the Connect 2026 Horizon Create and Horizon Studio announcement against their cited sources. About review dates.

Origins as Facebook Horizon

Meta announced the platform as Facebook Horizon at Oculus Connect 6 in September 2019, describing it as a social world built around user-generated content. It followed earlier Facebook VR social apps including Facebook Spaces, Oculus Rooms, and Oculus Venues.[2] An invite-only beta opened in August 2020.[2] On October 7, 2021, ahead of the company's broader rebrand, Facebook renamed the app Horizon Worlds and split off its live-events feature into a separate app, Horizon Venues.[2]

Two related products carried the Horizon name. Horizon Workrooms, a remote-meeting app with virtual conference rooms, launched in open beta in August 2021.[2] Horizon Venues, the live-events app for concerts and sports, was later folded back into Horizon Worlds.

Public launch and expansion

Horizon Worlds became available without an invite to users 18 and older in the United States and Canada on December 9, 2021, free of charge, running on Meta Quest 2 headsets. Support for the original Oculus Quest had ended on January 13, 2022.[1] At launch Meta highlighted creator tools for building custom worlds and games, a personal Safe Zone reachable from a wrist menu, and Arena Clash, a 3v3 laser-tag game. The company had announced a 10 million US dollar Creator Fund in October 2021 to seed world-building.[1]

The VR version reached the United Kingdom on June 17, 2022, Ireland and Iceland on July 13, 2022, and France and Spain (in English only) on August 16, 2022.[8] In September 2023, Meta released the platform on mobile and the web in invite-only early access, available through the Meta Quest app on Android and through browsers on iOS and desktop. Meta recommended Google Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge; Firefox was not supported. The mobile and web debut led with Super Rumble, a first-party shooter made by Meta's in-house studio, Ouro Interactive.[3][9]

Milestone Date
Announced as Facebook Horizon (Oculus Connect 6) September 2019[2]
Invite-only beta opens August 2020[2]
Renamed Horizon Worlds October 7, 2021[2]
Public VR launch (US and Canada, 18+) December 9, 2021[1]
United Kingdom June 17, 2022[8]
Ireland and Iceland July 13, 2022[8]
France and Spain August 16, 2022[8]
Teens (13-17) admitted in US and Canada April 18, 2023[10]
Mobile and web early access (with Super Rumble) September 2023[3]
Horizon Engine announced, replacing Unity September 17, 2025[11]
Meta announces Worlds will be "almost exclusively mobile" February 19, 2026[12]
Meta announces removal of the VR app from Quest by June 15, 2026 March 17, 2026[13]
Meta keeps existing worlds working in VR March 19, 2026[5]
Date from which Meta's email said VR worlds could no longer be built, published or updated June 15, 2026[4]
Horizon Create and browser-based Horizon Studio presented at Meta Connect 2026; early access waitlist opens September 2026[14]

How it works

Users navigate Horizon Worlds as legged or, originally, legless avatars, moving between discrete "worlds" that other users or Meta build. The platform combines social hangout spaces, mini-games, and creation tools in one app. On VR headsets it uses motion controllers and spatial audio; on phones and desktop it is controlled with touch or keyboard and mouse, which lets non-VR users share the same worlds as headset wearers.[3]

World creation was originally done with an in-headset editor. In February 2025 Meta released a Desktop Editor preview for Windows and began deprecating the in-headset tools; in September 2025 the desktop tool was renamed Horizon Studio.[15]

From its 2021 launch through 2025, Horizon Worlds ran on the Unity game engine. At Meta Connect on September 17, 2025, the company introduced the Horizon Engine, a proprietary runtime built to replace Unity. Mark Zuckerberg said Meta had spent "the last couple of years" building it from scratch. Meta claimed the engine loaded worlds about four times faster and allowed more than 100 concurrent users in a single instance, several times the previous limit.[11] Meta said the engine was built for persistent, cross-platform worlds that scale from cloud rendering down to a phone screen.[16]

User adoption

In February 2022 Meta executives said during an all-hands meeting that Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues together had about 300,000 monthly active users, with around 10,000 user-created worlds; a Meta spokesperson confirmed the figure to The Verge.[17] Reporting at the time noted that combining the two products into one number prevented direct comparison with rivals such as Rec Room, which had cited more than 1 million monthly VR users about six months earlier.[18]

Growth fell short of Meta's internal goals. In October 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported, based on internal documents, that monthly active users had fallen below 200,000 and that most visitors stopped using the app within their first month.[19] By early 2026, the picture differed by platform: the analytics firm Appfigures reported the mobile app had reached about 45 million total downloads across iOS and Google Play, with 1.5 million in 2026 alone, though lifetime consumer spending on the app was only about 1.1 million US dollars.[20]

The platform sat inside Meta's Reality Labs division, which by the company's own filings had accumulated operating losses past 60 billion US dollars from 2020 through 2024, including roughly a 5 billion dollar loss in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone.[21] By February 2026, TechCrunch put the division's losses since 2020 at nearly 80 billion US dollars.[22]

Age policy and safety

Horizon Worlds launched as an adults-only (18+) service.[1] On April 18, 2023, Meta opened it to teens aged 13 to 17 in the US and Canada, with safety defaults including private-by-default profiles, parental supervision tools through Family Center, limits on interactions between adults and unconnected teens, a voice mode that garbles a teen's voice for strangers, and content ratings that block teens from mature worlds and events.[10]

Safety drew scrutiny early. After reports of avatars groping and harassing other users in late 2021, Meta promoted the Safe Zone tool and, in February 2022, introduced a "personal boundary," a default buffer of about four feet that stops other avatars from coming too close.[23]

Avatars and the "legs" episode

Horizon Worlds avatars were initially rendered without legs, a limitation Meta attributed to the difficulty of tracking leg position from headset sensors alone. After a Zuckerberg avatar selfie posted in August 2022 was widely mocked for its crude graphics, Meta used its Connect 2022 keynote to announce avatar legs. On stage Zuckerberg said "legs are hard" and called them the most requested feature on the roadmap.[24] The demo used motion capture rather than real headset tracking, and in-app legs rolled out only gradually afterward.[25]

Mobile refocus and VR status

In January 2026 Meta laid off roughly 1,500 Reality Labs employees, about 10 percent of the division's staff.[22] On February 19, 2026, Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs' vice president of content, wrote that Meta was "explicitly separating our Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform in order to create more space for both products to grow" and was shifting the focus of Worlds to be "almost exclusively mobile." She said Meta had grown mobile monthly active users more than fourfold in 2025 and had gone from zero to more than 2,000 mobile-only worlds over the previous year, and that the company was removing individual worlds from its VR store shelves.[12][26] TechCrunch described the change as repositioning Horizon Worlds to compete with Roblox and Fortnite.[22]

On March 17, 2026, Meta set a timetable. Individual worlds and events would no longer be listed in the Quest store by March 31; the Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju and Bobber Bay worlds would no longer be available in VR; and the Horizon Worlds app would be removed from Quest headsets on June 15, 2026, leaving Worlds accessible as a flatscreen experience through the web and the Meta Horizon smartphone app.[13][27] Meta also said users would no longer be able to invite friends into Horizon Hyperscape scans as Meta avatars, because that feature ran through Horizon Worlds.[27] An email to Quest account holders stated: "Starting June 15, 2026, you will no longer be able to build, publish or update VR worlds."[4]

The decision drew immediate backlash, and Meta partly reversed it within days. On March 19, 2026, CTO Andrew Bosworth said in an Instagram Stories Q&A, "We have decided, just today in fact, that we will keep Horizon Worlds working in VR," so existing VR worlds remain playable on Meta Quest headsets. Meta still said it would not develop new VR worlds and would concentrate resources on the mobile version, where Bosworth said there was "a much bigger audience."[20][4]

According to UploadVR, Bosworth said the games that stay in VR are those built on the older Horizon Unity runtime, which would not work on mobile, while most of Meta's effort would go to mobile and the Meta Horizon Engine. He said people who already had games they liked would "be able to download the Horizon Worlds app and use it in VR for the foreseeable future."[5] Meta also scaled back how Worlds appears on Quest. It had given Horizon Worlds destinations their own Worlds tab in the headset's Navigator interface in October 2025, and after the move away from VR it removed that tab entirely; the Horizon Feed, the 2D app that had opened when a Quest was started, was retired as well.[28]

Horizon Create

In August 2026, UploadVR reported that code found by a dataminer in the Meta Horizon mobile app showed Meta preparing to spin Worlds off into a separate app, internally codenamed Eclipse, with Horizon Create as its pre-release name. Strings added in the app's August 25 update told users they would need to migrate to the new app to access mobile games.[29]

Meta introduced Horizon Create and a browser-based Horizon Studio at Meta Connect 2026. Meta described Horizon Create as "a standalone mobile app for bringing ideas to life at the moment of inspiration" and Horizon Studio as "a browser-based creation environment for when you want more control." Meta said both are built on the agentic creation capabilities of the Meta Horizon Engine and can produce complete 2D or 3D mobile games, including progression systems, difficulty, art direction and multiplayer, from a creator's description.[14][6] Horizon Studio adds sliders, dropdowns, typed parameters, visual editing and asset swapping, and projects can move between the two tools in either direction with their assets, systems and iteration history. Meta said no game engine or coding is required and that published games "will be able to reach people natively in their feeds across Facebook, Instagram, and Horizon."[6] Saxs Persson, Meta's vice president of Horizon, said: "If you have a great idea for a game, you should be able to build it and get it in front of players without spending months navigating tools, hardware, and marketing."[14]

Meta gave no date for general availability. Early access is rolling out gradually to people who join a waitlist, and Mobilegamer.biz reported that selected creators already had both tools. Meta said revenue opportunities would come through in-game monetization and the Meta Horizon Creator Fund, with more details on monetization to follow.[14][30] Android Central, which tried the tools at Connect, reported that Meta had worked on this new version of Horizon only since April and expected it to begin rolling out early the following year. In its demo, the Horizon Create phone app opened on a feed of playable games, five people edited the same world at once while playing in it, and a finished game could be published to Facebook, Instagram or Horizon in two taps.[7]

Comparison to other social VR platforms

Horizon Worlds competes with other user-generated social VR services. Unlike VRChat, which allows users to import arbitrary custom 3D avatars and worlds and which predates it, Horizon Worlds uses Meta's own avatar system and a curated set of building tools tied to Meta accounts. Rec Room is another comparison point and reached larger VR user numbers earlier in the platform's life.[18] Meta's later strategy explicitly aimed the mobile version at the audience served by Roblox.[4] After Meta announced the move away from VR, UploadVR reported in April 2026 that some operators of Horizon Worlds community venues were rebuilding their spaces in VRChat.[31]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Opening Horizon Worlds to Everyone 18+ in the US and Canada". Meta. 2021-12-09. https://about.fb.com/news/2021/12/horizon-worlds-open-in-us-and-canada/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "It's not quite the metaverse, but Meta is launching its virtual world". CNN Business. 2021-12-09. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/09/tech/meta-launches-horizon-worlds/index.html. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "'Horizon Worlds' to Launch on iOS in "coming weeks", Beta Now Available on Web & Android". Road to VR. 2023-09-15. https://roadtovr.com/meta-horizon-worlds-android-launch-quest-3/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Horizon Worlds is officially dead on VR. What happens now for the Meta Quest (and the Metaverse)?". Android Central. 2026-03-19. https://www.androidcentral.com/gaming/virtual-reality/horizon-worlds-is-officially-dead-on-vr-what-happens-now-for-the-meta-quest-and-the-metaverse. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 David Heaney (2026-03-19). "Meta Backtracks, Will Keep Horizon Worlds VR Support "For Existing Games"". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-will-keep-horizon-worlds-vr-support-for-existing-games/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Meta Connect 2026: The end-to-end recap". Meta for Developers. Meta Platforms. 2026-09-24. https://developers.meta.com/blog/meta-connect-recap/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Nicholas Sutrich (2026-09-24). "I played with Meta's new AI gaming engine reboot and can't believe how far it's come". Android Central. https://www.androidcentral.com/gaming/meta-horizon-create-horizon-studio-hands-on. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "Horizon Worlds Expands Into New Territories". Meta. 2022-06-17. https://www.meta.com/blog/horizon-worlds-expands-into-new-territories/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  9. ↑ "The Meta 'Super Rumble' game is the first of many next-gen Horizon Worlds VR titles". Engadget. 2023-07-28. https://www.engadget.com/the-meta-super-rumble-game-is-the-first-of-many-next-gen-horizon-worlds-vr-titles-130141631.html. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Welcoming Teens to Meta Horizon Worlds in the US and Canada". Meta. 2023-04-18. https://about.fb.com/news/2023/04/horizon-worlds-teen-expansion-us-canada/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Meta Horizon Engine Brings 4x Faster World Loading & 100+ User Instances". UploadVR. 2025-09-17. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-horizon-engine-horizon-worlds-tech/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Samantha Ryan (2026-02-19). "Our Renewed Focus in 2026". Meta Horizon OS Developers. Meta Platforms. https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/2026-vr-state-of-the-union-horizon-mobile-focus/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ian Carlos Campbell (2026-03-17). "Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access in June". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-will-shut-down-vr-horizon-worlds-access-in-june-222028919.html. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "Meta Connect Recap: Sign Up for Early Access to Horizon Create and Horizon Studio". Meta for Developers. Meta Platforms. 2026-09-24. https://developers.meta.com/blog/meta-connect-recap-horizon-create-and-horizon-studio/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  15. ↑ "Meta Abandons In-Headset Building Tool for 'Horizon Worlds', Marking a Shift in Expected Growth". Road to VR. 2025-02-26. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-vr-desktop-editor-horizon-worlds-growth-expectations/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  16. ↑ "Meta Horizon Engine at a Glance". Meta for Developers. 2025-09-17. https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/studio/meta-horizon-engine-at-a-glance/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  17. ↑ "Meta's 'Horizon' Social VR Platform Surpasses 300,000 Users in 3 Months". Road to VR. 2022-02-18. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-horizon-worlds-300000-users-3-months/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Horizon Worlds & Horizon Venues Hit 300,000 Monthly Users". UploadVR. 2022-02-18. https://www.uploadvr.com/horizon-300000-monthly-active-users/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  19. ↑ "Meta Horizon Worlds metaverse losing users, falling short of goals: Report". CNBC. 2022-10-15. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/15/meta-horizon-worlds-metaverse-losing-users-falling-short-of-goals.html. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Amanda Silberling (2026-03-19). "Meta decides not to shut down Horizon Worlds on VR after all". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/19/meta-decides-not-to-shut-down-horizon-worlds-on-vr-after-all/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  21. ↑ "Meta's Reality Labs faces $60 billion in losses as mixed-reality competition heats up". eMarketer. 2025-01-31. https://www.emarketer.com/content/meta-s-reality-labs-faces--60-billion-losses-mixed-reality-competition-heats-up. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Aisha Malik (2026-02-20). "Meta's metaverse leaves virtual reality". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/meta-metaverse-leaves-vr-horizon-worlds-mobile/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  23. ↑ "Introducing a Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Venues". Meta. 2022-02-04. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/02/personal-boundary-horizon/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  24. ↑ "'Legs Are Hard': Mark Zuckerberg Debuts Full-Body Metaverse Avatar". Entrepreneur. 2022-10-11. https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/meta-connect-2022-zuckerbergs-new-avatar-meta-quest-pro/437105. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  25. ↑ "Mark Zuckerberg's Avatar Legs Saga Ends With A Whimper, Not A Bang". Kotaku. 2023-06-19. https://kotaku.com/meta-horizon-worlds-mark-zuckerberg-avatar-legs-quest-1850789924. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  26. ↑ Scott Hayden (2026-02-23). "Meta Separates 'Horizon Worlds' from Quest, Going "almost exclusively mobile"". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-horizon-worlds-goes-mobile-quest-support-cancelled/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 David Heaney (2026-03-17). "Horizon Worlds Is Dropping VR Support, Going Flatscreen-Only". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-horizon-worlds-dropping-vr-support/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  28. ↑ David Heaney (2026-06-08). "Meta's New 'Navigator' System UI Finally Rolled Out To All Quest Headsets". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-horizon-os-navigator-ui-finally-rolled-out-to-all-quest-headsets/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  29. ↑ Luna (2026-08-28). "Meta Is Working To Spin Off Worlds From The Horizon Mobile App". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-is-working-to-spin-off-worlds-from-the-horizon-mobile-app/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  30. ↑ Neil Long (2026-09-25). "Horizon Create users can make games with a prompt and publish on Instagram and Facebook, says Meta". Mobilegamer.biz. https://mobilegamer.biz/horizon-create-users-can-create-and-publish-games-on-instagram-and-facebook-says-meta/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  31. ↑ K. Guillory (2026-04-09). "As Horizon Worlds Moves Away From VR, Its Users Decide Their Future". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/as-horizon-worlds-moves-away-from-vr-its-users-decide-their-future/. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
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