Horizon Worlds, the meta’s first pass in the Metaverse, will not be accessible via virtual reality headsets after June 15, 2026. The company shared plans to separate Horizon Worlds from the Quest VR platform and focus exclusively on the smartphone version of the app in February, and now in a new post on its community forums, Meta detailed when the VR version of Horizon Worlds will be discontinued.
As of March 31, the meta says individual Horizon worlds and events will no longer be listed in Quest’s store and headset owners will be unable to visit worlds such as “Horizon Central, Event Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay.” Then, after June 15, the app will be removed from the Quest headset and will be completely unavailable for viewing in World VR. From that point, the easiest place to get to Horizon Worlds would be the Meta Horizon app for iOS and Android.
Additionally, Hyperscape Capture, a recently added beta feature that allows Quest headset owners to capture, share, and view each other in detailed 3D scans of real-life locations, is also being removed from Horizon Worlds. Meta says users will still be able to capture and view Hyperscapes, “but sharing, inviting, and co-experiencing Hyperscapes with others will no longer be supported.”
While Meta’s original blog detailing its 2026 VR strategy left open the possibility that a committed Quest owner might still be able to access some portion of Meta’s original VR metaverse, apparently this was never the company’s plan. The meta saw enough “positive momentum” focusing on supporting a mobile version of Horizon Worlds in 2025 that it made sense to abandon VR altogether in 2026. While this seems contrary to Meta’s positioning as a “metaverse company,” it reflects where the company is spending the most money and seeing the most (relative) success: AI and smart glasses.
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