Meta is pulling the plug on Horizon Worlds in VR. The company confirmed the shutdown through an official community post, ending what became one of the most expensive failed bets in tech history. Eight zero billion dollars. Gone.
Polymarket flagged it on X, announcing that Meta would be shutting down the metaverse after pouring exactly $80,000,000,000 into the project. The figure alone stopped the internet cold.
Liu Says Blockchain Gaming Is Finished
Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, did not hold back. In a post on X, she stated that gaming on a blockchain is not coming back. No caveats. No qualifiers. Just a flat declaration that one of crypto’s most hyped verticals is over.
BSCNews noted on X that her comments came directly in response to the Polymarket post about Meta. The timing was pointed. Meta’s collapse of the metaverse gave Liu the backdrop to write off an entire category of blockchain-based gaming, and she took it.
The web3 gaming sector had been losing steam well before this, but a statement from the head of a major blockchain foundation carries weight. This was not some anonymous account. Lily Liu runs the Solana Foundation, and she said the trend is done.
What Meta Is Actually Doing
The Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest entirely by June 15, 2026, according to the official Meta announcement. Before that date, Horizon Worlds and Events disappear from the Quest Store by March 31. Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay worlds also stop working in VR at that point.
What survives is a mobile-only version of Horizon Worlds. Meta is repositioning the platform onto phones. The VR experience is finished. Users who spent money on Meta Horizon Plus will also lose their Horizon-specific perks, including Meta Credits, Digital Clothing, and avatar purchases, also by March 31.
This was Meta’s flagship social and metaverse product. It was the thing Mark Zuckerberg staked the company’s identity on. He renamed the entire company after it.
$80 Billion and a Phone App
The numbers here are staggering. Eighty billion dollars produced a platform now being downsized to mobile. That is the outcome after years of heavy investment, aggressive marketing, and a full corporate rebrand built around the metaverse vision.
The decision to go mobile-only strips out what made Horizon Worlds distinctive. The immersive VR angle was the point. Without that, it becomes a different product entirely, and a lesser one. Meta says it continues to invest in Quest hardware improvements, including new interface features and expanded Navigator rollout. But the social metaverse is effectively over.
Liu’s statement on X takes on more weight in this context. Blockchain gaming tied itself to the same promises the metaverse did, immersive virtual economies, digital ownership, play-to-earn models. Meta’s retreat signals that the consumer appetite for those promises never materialized at scale.
The Solana Foundation president said it plainly. Gaming on a blockchain is not coming back. The $80 billion metaverse just backed her up.
Key Takeaways:
- Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds on Quest VR by June 15, 2026, after spending $80 billion on the metaverse.
- Solana Foundation President Lily Liu declared on X that blockchain gaming is finished and will not return.
- Horizon Worlds moves to mobile-only, stripping the VR experience that defined the entire platform.
