Meta has been redirecting its strategic compass after years of betting heavily on virtual reality technologies, since it changed its name from Facebook in 2021 out of its belief in the future of the metaverse.
At the time, the company bet on Horizon Worlds to be the main platform for communication in the future, but the current reality indicates a decline in the momentum of VR technologies compared to previous expectations.
In a recent interview, Samantha Ryan, vice president of content at Reality Labs, confirmed that the company is now adopting a mobile-first approach, as Horizon Worlds transitions to become an “almost entirely mobile-oriented” platform.
Based on this trend, the company is separating Horizon Worlds and the Quest virtual reality platform as independent products. At the Quest hardware level, the new strategy focuses on supporting third-party developers and their content rather than developing the company’s own internal worlds.
It even pulled some Horizon Worlds destinations from the VR Store, and removed the Worlds section from the Quest home screen.
As for Horizon itself, the focus has shifted almost entirely to the mobile experience. According to the statements, the number of worlds allocated exclusively to phones increased during the year 2025 from zero to about 2,000 worlds, and the number of monthly users has more than quadrupled.
To support this shift, the company has launched and expanded new tools such as Meta Horizon Studio and Meta Horizon Engine to improve the experience of creating more interactive worlds on phones. It also added new monetization tools, including premium packages and season passes.
Although this step may seem logical in light of changing market trends, competition remains strong for giant platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite. The scene is also not without challenges, especially after Reality Labs recently laid off about 10% of its employees as part of a restructuring.
