Rec Room
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| Rec Room | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| VR/AR | VR |
| Developer | Against Gravity (later Rec Room Inc.) |
| Publisher | Against Gravity (later Rec Room Inc.) |
| Platform | SteamVR, Oculus Home, PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch |
| Device | HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest |
| Operating System | Windows, Android, iOS |
| Type | Full Game |
| Genre | Sports, Early Access, VR, Multiplayer, Co-op, Online Co-Op, Free to Play |
| Input Device | Tracked motion controllers |
| Play Area | Standing, Room-Scale |
| Game Mode | Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op |
| Language | English |
| Review | Very Positive |
| Release Date | Jun 1, 2016 |
| Price | Free |
| App Store | Steam |
| Website | https://recroom.com |
| Infobox Updated | 09/29/2026 |
Rec Room was a free-to-play social VR app and cross-platform online game developed by Against Gravity, a Seattle studio that later operated as Rec Room Inc.[1][2] It launched on 1 June 2016 for the HTC Vive on SteamVR as a collection of multiplayer sports games, then grew into a platform where players built and shared their own rooms and games.[3][4][5] Over the following decade it expanded to the Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest, desktop PC, consoles and mobile devices, with cross-play between them.[4][6]
The company had raised $294 million by December 2021, when a funding round valued it at $3.5 billion.[6] After two rounds of layoffs in 2025, Rec Room Inc. announced on 30 March 2026 that it could not make the service "a sustainably profitable business" and would close it. The service shut down at noon Pacific time on 1 June 2026, and Snap Inc. acquired selected assets from the company.[7][8][2] By the time of the announcement, Rec Room said it had reached more than 150 million players and creators.[7]
History
Founding and early access
Against Gravity was founded in 2016 by six former Microsoft employees: Nick Fajt, Cameron Brown, Dan Kroymann, Bilal Orhan, John Bevis and Josh Wehrly. Fajt had worked on the team building the augmented reality headset that became Microsoft HoloLens, a project codenamed "Gravity", and the studio's name was an inside joke about that project. According to Sequoia Capital, the team built its first game in under 100 days, working at first from Brown's house in Seattle.[1] At the time of the company's seed round, Road to VR described Fajt as the former principal program manager on the HoloLens team and Brown, the chief creative officer, as the former HoloLens creative director.[9]
Steam lists 1 June 2016 as Rec Room's release date and 28 June 2016 as its early access release date.[3] The first version was VR-only and used teleport-only locomotion.[4] Road to VR's July 2016 coverage of the free early access release described activities including disc golf, dodgeball and ping pong, avatars with customizable hair and clothing and cartoon faces whose expressions reacted to speech, body language and nearby events, and mute and ignore functions for dealing with other players.[10] In February 2017, Against Gravity announced a $5 million seed round from investors including Sequoia, First Round, Vulcan, Maveron, Betaworks and The Venture Reality Fund. The studio said more than 100,000 people had visited Rec Room in the second half of 2016, playing more than 1 million games.[9]
Platform expansion
Rec Room came to the Oculus Rift with Touch controllers later in 2016 and was distributed through Steam and Oculus Home.[4][9] After a closed beta on PlayStation VR in October 2017, a free open beta launched on the PlayStation Store on 21 November 2017, with cross-platform play and creation tools such as the Maker Pen.[11] According to UploadVR, the company had shifted its focus to flatscreen play by 2018, launching non-VR versions on PC and PlayStation.[4]
Rec Room was available on the Oculus Quest when that headset launched in 2019.[12] Because the Quest was less powerful than a gaming PC, the Quest version launched without several activities, including laser tag, disc golf, bowling, soccer and the Rec Royale battle royale mode, though it kept cross-play with PC VR, desktop and PSVR players.[13] Versions for iOS, Xbox, Android and Nintendo Switch followed.[4] The Xbox version launched on 3 December 2020,[14] and the Switch version on 6 November 2024.[15] By December 2021, Road to VR listed releases on Meta Quest, PSVR, SteamVR, Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.[6]
Creation tools
Before Rec Room Studio, creators built rooms and objects inside the game with the Maker Pen, an in-game tool for spawning basic shapes, specific creation tools, props and community-built assets.[16] In September 2022 the company introduced Rec Room Studio in beta, which let creators publish content to Rec Room directly from the Unity editor; its listed beta features included programmable events with Circuits.[16] In March 2021 the company said 2 million players had created content on the platform,[17] and by December 2021 it counted about 12 million rooms.[5]
Creators earned tokens from their content and received payouts from the company.[7] Rec Room said creators earned more than $1 million in a single quarter for the first time in 2025, 17 creators had passed $100,000 in lifetime earnings, and more than 2,500 creators had been paid since the program began.[18] In an August 2025 post, the company explained that it kept about 70 cents of each dollar spent on items it made itself, but only about 30 cents of each dollar spent on user-generated content, after platform fees and creator payments.[19]
Funding and growth
The following table lists the funding rounds reported in the press.
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead investors | Reported valuation | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2017 | Seed | US$5 million | Not stated (investors included Sequoia) | Not disclosed | [9] |
| June 2019 | Series A and B | US$24 million | Sequoia and Index Ventures | Not disclosed | [12] |
| December 2020 | Series C | US$20 million | Not stated | Not disclosed | [17] |
| March 2021 | Growth round | US$100 million | Sequoia and Index Ventures | US$1.25 billion | [17] |
| December 2021 | Growth round | US$145 million | Coatue Management | US$3.5 billion | [5] |
When it announced the March 2021 round, the company reported more than 15 million lifetime users and 566% year-over-year revenue growth.[17] In December 2021, TechCrunch reported that the platform had 37 million users, up from 2 million people playing and creating content that March, and that monthly users had grown by almost 450% since November 2020.[5] Road to VR put total funding at $294 million after the December 2021 round.[6]
Layoffs
In March 2025, Rec Room laid off 16% of its staff. Chief executive Nick Fajt cited slower growth in the games market, higher interest rates and a "more challenging fundraising environment", and said the company planned a flatter structure; it described Rooms 2.0 as its largest bet.[20]
On 25 August 2025, Brown and Fajt announced that about half of the remaining team would be laid off. They wrote that the company had tried to build a platform where anyone could create anything on any device, but that the content with real impact came almost entirely from PC and VR creators, while creation on mobile and console produced large volumes of lower-quality content that strained moderation. The company said it would focus its user-generated content efforts on PC, do less work on broad expansion such as the Maker Pen on mobile and controller and the Maker AI tool, and build its own Rec Room Originals directly in Unity instead of with the in-game creation tools.[21][22] Three days later, Fajt wrote that the company had no debt and a strong cash position, but said that its spending had "got out of sync with our revenue and our growth"; he estimated the company's runway would probably last into 2029.[19]
Shutdown
On 30 March 2026, Rec Room Inc. announced that the service would close on 1 June 2026 at noon Pacific time. The company wrote that "we never quite figured out how to make Rec Room a sustainably profitable business" and cited "the recent shift in the VR market, along with broader headwinds in gaming".[7][8] New account creation, friend requests, Rec Room Plus sign-ups and token rewards ended immediately, and first-party store content was discounted by 80%.[7][4]
| Date | Wind-down step | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 30 March 2026 | Closure announced; new accounts, friend requests and creation of new monetized user-generated content disabled | [7][8] |
| 30 April 2026 | Last day to redeem gift cards and use wallet funds | [7] |
| 1 May 2026 | Token purchases end; refund requests for unused funds open | [7] |
| 18 May 2026, 23:59 UTC | Creator token earnings end | [7] |
| 1 June 2026, 12:00 PT | Logins disabled; rec.net website and Rec Room Studio build servers go offline; final creator payout processed | [7] |
| 15 June 2026 | Refund request window for unused funds closes | [7] |
Three-, six- and twelve-month Rec Room Plus subscribers were to receive automatic refunds for the unused part of their subscriptions.[7] Before the closure, the company released tools in the Steam PC version for creators to download their room, invention and cloud data, which it said could help rebuild an experience elsewhere, for example as a standalone Unity app, though not as a working copy of a room.[23] On 21 April 2026 it added tools, also limited to the Steam PC version, for players to export their avatars in 2D and 3D formats.[24]
According to S&P Capital IQ data published by MarketScreener, Snap Inc. completed an acquisition of certain assets from Rec Room Inc. on 31 March 2026; the report gave no terms.[2] Road to VR, citing GeekWire, and Hypergrid Business reported that some Rec Room employees were joining Specs Inc., the Snap subsidiary behind its Specs augmented reality glasses, and that neither company had indicated Rec Room would continue at Snap.[25][26] As of September 2026, Steam shows that Rec Room is no longer available on its store, and recroom.com shows only a "Coming Soon" holding page.[3][27]
Review
The following review was written in 2016, while Rec Room was in early access on Steam.
Rec Room is another one of those VR collections of mini-games, with what could be considered a slight social twist. While the game does have a number of games and activities for you to enjoy; it's design to have you play almost all of them against other players in online multiplayer, be they friends or not.
When you first load up Rec Room, you'll quickly realise just how cheery of an environment the game is set around. There are a number of reasons for assuming this, but the main ones have to be the fact that almost everything in sight is bright, colourful, and vibrant. Not only that, though, but all of the characters you come across are incredibly happy, with everyone having a smile painted onto their face. It's incredibly difficult to play this game and be anything other than happy, because everything you come across just appears to want to make you smile; whether you're winning or losing.
Moving onto the more important aspect of this entire game: the mini-games themselves. There's a pretty huge variety for you to pick from, with Dodgeball, Disc Golf, and Paintball being some of the main contenders that come to mind right now. Depending on what you're playing the controls will vary to some degree, but after playing a few rounds of whatever game you've picked for yourself to play you'll have the controls down without any real issues cropping up. Each game you get to play feels completely different from one another and will leave you laughing your backside off at the end of every match; and that's partly down to the community.
Inside the game there is a voice channel, something that is considerably more prominent in the Paintball game, and despite the internet's willingness to make everything that exists the opposite of innocent as possible; Rec Room somehow manages to avoid it a lot of the time. There's a really big sense of community presence in the game, as a lot of the time when you're playing, despite whoever is winning or losing you can almost always find someone laughing at the results; and not in a malicious way. After a few games of Paintball, you will have all shared a laugh with each other, enjoyed a few rounds of testing your aim against their legless bodies (characters don't have legs - no idea why) and making a few friends in the process.
For the time being, Rec Room is currently in Early Access, so there are bound to be a few issues here and there, with the occasional clipping going on; connectivity issues; and even weird shadows at times. For the most part these problems don't veer their head all too often, but on the odd occasion it can break the immersion to some degree, as it ruins some of the flow that the aesthetics are trying their very best to keep together.
Even with Early Access being a technical complaint, you can't dispute the fact that the entire package you get with Rec Room is absolutely astonishing value for money; because as you may not already know, the game is completely free. You could go onto Steam and download it for yourself this very second and start playing it for yourself in a matter of minutes.
The only real downside I've found, other than a couple of bugs here and there is that at times it can be a little difficult to find people online; especially so when you're playing a game that isn't quite as popular as something like Paintball. Unfortunately, this isn't an easy fix, as VR isn't exactly the most approachable, at least when it comes to price for people. So, for the time being this might stay a problem, at least hopefully up until the game gets an official release and gains a bit more exposure. While it's not impossible to find a few games online, it's simply easier to find them at peak times and when it's not at peak time it can make things a tad difficult to play online with.
Overall, Rec Room is a delightfully pleasant, enjoyable, and vibrant experience; a game that you can lose yourself in for hours with a couple of friends - new or old. There are a couple of niggling issues, with the main one being able to find people online at times, but hopefully that's something that will be fixed in time; along with any bugs that are occurring at the moment. For what it is though, Rec Room is a great addition to anyone's VR library; even more so when you consider the fact that the game is completely free for anyone to play.
Description
Welcome to Rec Room, the virtual reality social club where you play active games against competitors from all around the world. Hang out in the locker room, customize your appearance, then party up with friends new and old to play games like Paintball, Dodgeball, 3D Charades, Paddle Ball, Disc Golf, and much more! Plus new activities and fun stuff added frequently.
Things to Know
- Rec Room is an active game. Please use common sense and caution while playing!
- Children under thirteen are not allowed.
- Children between 13-18 must consult with a parent or guardian before playing.
- In Early Access, Rec Room defaults to being a public experience. You will interact and voice chat with other people in real time. Rec Room offers mute, ignore and reporting features which we encourage you to learn and use. But even if you use these features, you still may be exposed to speech or behavior you find inappropriate.
- By playing Rec Room, you agree to our Code of Conduct!
Code of Conduct
- Rule #1: Be excellent to each other!
- No sexually explicit behavior or language in the locker room or public activities.
- Whatever you choose to do in a private activity, still make sure everyone is cool with it.
- Sexist, racist, discriminatory or harassing language is not welcome in Rec Room.
- Don't mess with other people's games! We don't want to implement a million rules to control your behavior in every game. Don't make us.
Features
System Requirements
Windows
Minimum
- OS: Win 7 or higher
- Processor: Intel i5
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 970
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Recommended
- OS: Win 7 or higher
- Processor: Intel i7
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 980 or better
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Setup Instructions
Images and Videos
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Athena Frost (2021-12-07). "Rec Room's Nick Fajt on Finding Our Digital Third Place". Sequoia Capital. https://sequoiacap.com/article/nick-fajt-rec-room-spotlight/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Snap Inc. acquired certain assets from Rec Room Inc.". MarketScreener. S&P Capital IQ. 2026-03-30. https://www.marketscreener.com/news/snap-inc-acquired-certain-assets-from-rec-room-inc-ce7e51dcde88f126. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Rec Room". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/471710/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Mike Johnson (2026-03-31). "Rec Room Is Shutting Down In June". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/rec-room-to-shut-down-in-june/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ingrid Lunden (2021-12-20). "Rec Room raises $145M at a $3.5B valuation for its user-generated, immersive gaming platform". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/20/rec-room-raises-145m-at-a-3-5b-valuation-for-its-user-generated-immersive-gaming-platform/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Scott Hayden (2021-12-20). "Social VR App 'Rec Room' Raises $145M Funding, Now Valued at $3.5B". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/rec-room-vr-funding-145-m-valuation/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 "School's Out for Rec Room". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. 2026-03-30. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/schools-out-for-rec-room. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lauren Forristal (2026-03-31). "Social gaming platform Rec Room, once valued at $3.5B, is shutting down". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/31/social-gaming-platform-rec-room-once-valued-at-3-5b-is-shutting-down/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Scott Hayden (2017-02-02). "'Rec Room' Studio Raises $5M "to continue to build the future of Social VR"". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/rec-room-raises-5m-continue-build-future-social-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Scott Hayden (2016-07-05). "Why New Social VR App 'Rec Room' Makes You Smile". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/rec-room-makes-smile/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Shawn Whiting (2017-11-09). "Rec Room Coming to PlayStation VR, Open Beta Launches Nov. 21". PlayStation.Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/2017/11/09/rec-room-coming-to-playstation-vr-open-beta-launches-nov-21/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Ben Lang (2019-06-12). "Studio Behind Social VR App 'Rec Room' Raises $24 Million in Funding". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/rec-room-against-gravity-investment-series-a-b-24-million/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ David Heaney (2019-05-15). "Rec Room On Oculus Quest Won't Have All Activities At Launch". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/rec-room-quest-limited-launch/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Shawn Whiting (2020-12-03). "Rec Room on Xbox!". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2020/12/2/rec-room-on-xbox. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Stephen Gregson-Wood (2024-11-01). "Rec Room will release for Nintendo Switch next week". Pocket Gamer. https://www.pocketgamer.com/rec-room/nintendo-switch-release/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Scott Hayden (2022-09-26). "Rec Room's New Unity-powered Creation Suite Brings Industry Standard Tools to Social VR Platform". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/rec-room-studio-unity-content-creation/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Lucas Matney (2021-03-24). "Rec Room raises at $1.25B valuation from Sequoia and Index as VCs push to find another Roblox". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/24/rec-room-raises-at-1-25b-valuation-from-sequoia-and-index-as-vcs-push-to-find-another-roblox/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "A $1M Quarter for Rec Room Creators". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. 2025-09-24. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2025/9/24/a-1m-quarter-for-rr-creators. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Rec Room Finances And UGC Revenue". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. 2025-08-28. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2025/8/28/rec-room-finances-and-ugc-revenue. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Henry Stockdale (2025-03-04). "Rec Room Layoffs Hit 16% Of Staff As Studio Addresses 'Dramatically Changed' Market". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/rec-room-layoffs-march-2025/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Cameron Brown, Nick Fajt (2025-08-25). "Rec Room Update - August 2025". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2025/8/25/rec-room-update-august-2025. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Ian Hamilton (2025-08-25). "Rec Room Halves Staff After 'Pushing A Giant Vision We Couldn't Realistically Deliver'". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/rec-room-half-staff-layoffs/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Exporting your creation data". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. 2026-04-06. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2026/4/6/exporting-your-creation-data. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Exporting your avatar data". Rec Room Blog. Rec Room Inc.. 2026-04-21. https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2026/4/21/exporting-your-avatar-data. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Scott Hayden (2026-03-31). "Virtual Hangout 'Rec Room' is Permanently Closing in June, Assets Reportedly Acquired by Snap". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/rec-room-shutdown-snap-acquisition-2026/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Maria Korolov (2026-03-31). "Rec Room shuts down after decade and 150 million players". Hypergrid Business. https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2026/03/rec-room-shuts-down-after-decade-and-150-million-players/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Coming Soon". recroom.com. https://recroom.com/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.