Meta's flagship metaverse service leaves VR behind

February 21, 2026

Here's something that caught my attention — Meta is pivoting away from VR for its flagship metaverse service, Horizon Worlds. Instead of being tied to the Quest headset, it’s now almost entirely mobile-focused. And honestly, that’s a big shift. According to Samuel Axon writing in TechCrunch, Meta’s doubling down on the mobile side, even as they claim they’re still committed to the VR developer ecosystem. Now, here’s where it gets interesting — Meta has lost around $80 billion in its Reality Labs division, which focuses on mixed reality, and over 1,000 employees were laid off in January. But that doesn’t mean they’re abandoning the space entirely; they still have more than 15,000 staff working on it. So what does this actually mean for Meta’s future? It seems like they’re recalibrating, shifting focus, and maybe trying to keep their options open. As Axon points out, the company’s strategy is anything but simple — there’s a lot more happening behind the scenes.

Meta announced today that it will divorce its Horizon Worlds social and gaming service—once promoted as the company's first major step into the metaverse—from its Quest VR headset platform and digital store.

The company says it is now "shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile." The announcement is also filled with statements like "we're doubling down on the VR developer ecosystem" that are attempting to head off any suggestion that Meta is retreating from the mixed reality space.

This is far from the first signal that big changes are happening with Meta's mixed reality strategy. CNBC reported that Meta has lost $80 billion on investments in Reality Labs, the company's mixed reality division. More than 1,000 Reality Labs employees were laid off in January, but don't misread that as a total closure; more than 15,000 people were working in that part of the organization before the layoffs.

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