Despite Studio Closures and Layoffs, Meta Quest Usage Hits All-Time High in 2025: What It Means for VR’s Future

Meta Quest user growth statistics 2025: active users and engagement trends

In 2025, Meta’s Quest platform reached its highest count of active VR users to date. Despite 2025 being a “no new headset” year following the late 2024 release of the Quest 3, engagement remained strong and Meta Horizon Store revenue increased slightly. Meta’s Director of Games, Chris Pruett, identified three primary user cohorts:

• Teens: The most active audience, primarily engaging with social and multiplayer content discovered through social media.
• “VR Elites”: Early adopters who spend less on content than previously but remain a core enthusiast segment.
• Mainstream Adults: A growing group initially attracted to fitness or media consumption who eventually explore seated or hand-tracking games.

Daily and monthly active users increased by late 2025. Significant engagement was seen in titles like Gorilla Tag, which averaged nearly 60-minute sessions and reached 3 million monthly active players. Analysis suggests the platform is approaching or has reached the critical mass of 10 million active users required for a self-sustaining developer ecosystem.

Why Meta Quest usage reached an all-time high in 2025 despite layoffs

Several factors contributed to the record usage in 2025 despite internal restructuring at Meta:

• A Large and Maturing Hardware Base: Millions of Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets were in use. Price cuts and bundles in late 2024 further expanded the install base.
• Strong Content Library and Third-Party Games: The Quest Store featured hundreds of apps, with over 100 titles earning more than $1 million in 2025.
• Community and Social Pull: Social experiences like Gorilla Tag, Rec Room, and VRChat created network effects. The full release of Roblox on Quest in 2025 brought a massive pre-existing audience to the platform.
• New Usage Modes: Beyond gaming, users engaged with fitness apps (Supernatural), productivity tools (Horizon Workrooms), and media apps (Netflix VR).
• Horizon Worlds Loyalty: While niche, the platform maintained a loyal user base, and the launch of the Horizon+ subscription helped sustain activity.

Layoffs primarily affected future projects rather than the immediate experience of current users, who continued to access a deep library of existing and third-party games.

How gaming drove Meta Quest’s record-breaking growth in 2025

Gaming remained the primary driver for the platform’s growth through several trends:

• Free-to-Play Sensations: Gorilla Tag became a viral phenomenon with 10 million lifetime players and over $100 million in revenue from cosmetics by mid-2024.
• Competitive Multiplayer and Social Games: Popularity in titles like Population: One and Walkabout Mini Golf, combined with the arrival of Roblox, turned VR into a social hub.
• New Releases and Ports: High-quality releases like The Thrill of the Fight 2 and Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, along with Quest 3 enhancements for older titles, kept users engaged.
• Diverse Genres: Success spanned various categories, from dinosaur taming (UG) to physics sandboxes (Hard Bullet) and fitness games.
• Live Service Updates: Continuous content updates for games like Beat Saber and Onward maintained long-term player interest.

Top Meta Quest apps and games generating over $1 million revenue

In 2025, over 100 titles achieved more than $1 million in gross revenue. Key performers included:

• Beat Saber: The first VR title to top $100 million in revenue, continuing its success through song packs.
• Gorilla Tag: Earned over $100 million by mid-2024 via in-app purchases.
• Population: One: Remains a top-grossing battle royale title.
• Resident Evil 4 VR: A successful AAA port that drove hardware sales.
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: Grossed $50 million across platforms by 2022, with strong Quest performance.
• Supernatural: A fitness app successful in driving recurring subscription revenue.
• Onward: A military sim that earned over $10 million on Quest within its first year.

In 2025, in-app purchase (IAP) revenue grew by 10%, and the number of apps earning at least $500,000 from IAP increased by 20%.

Meta Horizon+ subscription growth and its impact on VR ecosystem

Launched in mid-2024, the Horizon+ subscription service reached over 1 million active subscribers by the end of 2025. For $7.99 per month, users access:

• A Games Catalog of approximately 50 major titles (e.g., Asgard’s Wrath 2, Demeo).
• An Indie Catalog of approximately 50 smaller titles.
• Two selected games per month to keep as long as the subscription is active.

The service paid out nearly $20 million to participating developers in 2025. While it lowers the barrier for users to try new content and increases retention, there is ongoing debate regarding whether it might cannibalize direct game sales in the future.

Meta Quest revenue growth: in-app purchases and subscription trends

The VR economy in 2025 saw a diversification of revenue streams:

• In-App Purchases: IAP was the fastest-growing revenue segment, with spending distributed more broadly across many titles rather than just top hits.
• Subscription Trends: Outside of Horizon+, subscriptions were primarily found in non-gaming categories like fitness (Supernatural, FitXR).
• Overall Revenue: Store revenue was slightly up compared to 2024, with growth in IAP and subscriptions offsetting plateaus in one-time sales.
• Developer Earnings: Meta maintained its 30% platform fee, with many developers seeing healthy returns as user spending per head increased.

How Meta layoffs and Reality Labs cuts impacted VR development

Despite user growth, Reality Labs faced significant budget cuts and layoffs in late 2025 and early 2026:

• Cancelled Projects: Major titles like the Batman: Arkham VR sequel were cancelled, and Echo VR was shut down to reallocate resources.
• Studio Shutdowns: Meta closed Twisted Pixel, Armature Studio, and Sanzaru Games. Camouflaj faced significant layoffs and was moved off VR projects.
• Reduced Innovation: R&D for Horizon Worlds and advanced technologies like codec avatars saw budget reductions.
• Shift to Third-Party: Meta moved away from internal “blockbuster” first-party development, focusing instead on the Oculus Publishing arm, which supported 140 external titles in 2025.

While the existing library remained intact, the cuts suggest a thinner pipeline for major first-party exclusive titles in the coming years.

Which VR studios Meta shut down and why it matters for developers

In late 2025 and early 2026, Meta shut down several first-party VR game studios it had previously acquired:

• Twisted Pixel Games: Known for Wilson’s Heart and Deadpool VR. Acquired in 2022 and shuttered in January 2026, suggesting Deadpool VR may have underperformed expectations.
• Sanzaru Games: Creators of Asgard’s Wrath and Asgard’s Wrath 2. Shut down in early 2026. This was unexpected as Asgard’s Wrath 2 was a flagship Quest title. Its closure resulted in the cancellation of a planned Batman VR sequel.
• Armature Studio: Developed Resident Evil 4 VR. Closed in the same wave, signaling Meta’s shift away from funding expensive internal ports of AAA flat games.
• Ready At Dawn: Known for the Lone Echo and Echo VR franchises. While not officially “shut down,” the studio faced heavy layoffs following the closure of Echo VR, leaving its future uncertain.
• Camouflaj: Creators of Iron Man VR and Batman: Arkham Shadow. Faced major layoffs in January 2026; Meta decided the studio will no longer develop VR games, effectively ending plans for sequels.

These closures leave Meta with very few active internal game studios, primarily Beat Games, BigBox VR, and Ouro Interactive. For the broader developer community, this matters because:

• It indicates a reduction in Meta’s direct funding for ambitious first-party projects.
• Independent developers face less competition from Meta’s internal titles.
• Industry talent from these shuttered studios is dispersing into new startups or competing companies.
• Meta is shifting focus from VR gaming toward AI and AR (smart glasses).

Meta Quest vs metaverse strategy: why Meta is shifting focus

By 2025, Meta refocused its strategy, prioritizing the Quest as a gaming platform and investing in AI and AR rather than the original “metaverse” vision. Key reasons include:

1. Hype vs. Reality: Horizon Worlds struggled with user retention and modest numbers (200k monthly users in 2023), proving that users prefer specific experiences (games/fitness) over a general virtual world.
2. Gaming Success: Quest usage reached record highs due to gaming, leading Meta to prioritize AI and hardware sales over metaverse expansion.
3. Cross-Platform Evolution: Horizon Worlds began expanding to mobile and PC, conceding that VR-only access limits growth.
4. Smart Glasses: The success of Ray-Ban Meta glasses (reaching 2 million units by 2025) shifted the company’s focus toward daily-wear AR hardware.
5. Financial Discipline: Under the “Year of Efficiency,” Meta reallocated budgets from the metaverse to high-growth areas like AI to satisfy investors.

What Reality Labs losses reveal about Meta’s VR business strategy

Reality Labs lost $19.1 billion in 2025, bringing cumulative losses since 2019 to approximately $80 billion. This reveals:

• A long-term investment mindset where Meta is willing to subsidize hardware and content to gain market leadership.
• An imbalance where R&D and operating costs significantly exceed hardware and app revenue ($2.1 billion in 2025).
• A strategic adjustment to reduce losses by prioritizing hardware and AR over experimental “moonshot” projects.
• A commitment to the platform’s survival, using massive spending to keep competitors at bay while shifting toward monetization.

Is the metaverse dead or evolving? Meta’s new direction explained

The “metaverse” concept is evolving rather than dying. Meta’s new direction includes:

• Fading terminology: The word “metaverse” is being replaced by “AI” and “Efficiency” in official communications.
• Multiplatform shift: Repositioning Horizon Worlds as a cross-platform social app similar to Roblox.
• AR and Mixed Reality: Viewing the “real-world metaverse” as something achieved through AR glasses and MR features on Quest.
• AI integration: Using generative AI to help users create content and populate virtual spaces.

How third-party developers are shaping the future of Meta Quest

As Meta pulls back from first-party content, third-party developers have become the lifeblood of the Quest platform:

• Diversity and Innovation: Independent studios are creating niche hits like Ghosts of Tabor and Breachers.
• Filling the Void: Meta’s Oculus Publishing is funding external projects, such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR, rather than internal ones.
• Technical Tools: Third-party creators provide essential assets and tools, such as PixelHair (realistic 3D hair for Blender/Unreal) and The View Keeper (camera management for Blender), which raise the visual quality of VR apps.
• Community Platforms: Rec Room and VRChat successfully provide the social and user-generated content experiences that Meta originally sought for the metaverse.
• Cross-Platform Standards: Developers are pushing for interoperability and OpenXR standards.

Meta Quest revenue growth: in-app purchases and subscription trends

Quest’s financial ecosystem is shifting from one-time purchases to recurring revenue:

• In-app purchases (IAP) grew by 10% in 2025, with more titles hitting the $500,000 revenue milestone.
• Subscriptions: Horizon+ reached 1 million subscribers, while fitness apps like Supernatural and FitXR maintain successful monthly models.
• Bundling: Meta uses free subscription trials to onboard new users into the recurring economy.
• Longevity: Developers are moving toward “games-as-a-service” models to provide ongoing content and monetization.

What Meta Quest’s success means for the future of virtual reality gaming

The success of the Quest platform in 2025 validates several industry trends:

• Standalone VR is the dominant model for mass adoption.
• Mainstream publishers (Capcom, Ubisoft) now see VR as a viable market.
• Indie developers have a unique space to innovate without direct competition from internal AAA Meta titles.
• VR gaming is increasingly social, blurring the lines between games and social networks.
• Hardware innovation continues as competitors (Apple, Sony, Pico) iterate in response to Quest’s dominance.

Will Meta Quest continue to grow after layoffs and studio closures?

Despite internal cuts, Quest growth is expected to continue due to:

• Hardware Iteration: Future models like the Quest 4 and lightweight AR/VR hybrids.
• Third-Party Pipeline: A strong lineup of externally developed titles and Meta-published partner games.
• New Use Cases: Growth in mixed reality, productivity, and fitness.
• Global Expansion: Aggressive pricing and expansion into new international markets.

While competition from Apple and Sony and the need for user retention present challenges, the platform’s established user base and strong third-party ecosystem suggest VR has moved past its initial experimental phase into a sustainable industry.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)

1. What caused Meta Quest usage to hit a record high in 2025 despite layoffs?
   Record usage was driven by a large existing hardware base (Quest 2 and 3) and a rich content library. Popular titles like Beat Saber and Gorilla Tag, alongside new 2025 releases, maintained high engagement. Social and multiplayer experiences, particularly among teens, fueled repeat usage. Internal layoffs did not remove existing store content, allowing the established user base to continue playing frequently.
2. How many people are using Meta Quest actively, and how fast did it grow by 2025?
   While Meta does not release exact figures, 2025 saw the highest number of active users in Quest history, with independent estimates suggesting approximately 10 million monthly active users. This milestone indicates the platform has reached a “critical mass” for sustainability. Growth was supported by the Quest 3 launch and increased engagement, with store revenue growing slightly and in-app purchases increasing by 10%.
3. Which VR game studios did Meta shut down, and why does it matter?
   Meta shuttered Twisted Pixel Games (Deadpool VR), Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath), and Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR), while heavily downsizing Camouflaj (Iron Man VR). These closures represent a strategic pivot away from expensive internal first-party development toward a reliance on third-party studios. While this move caused industry uncertainty, it created opportunities for independent developers to fill the content gap.
4. What is Horizon+ and how did it reach 1 million subscribers?
   Horizon+ is a VR subscription service launched in mid-2024 that provides access to a rotating catalog of 100 titles for approximately $8 per month. It reached 1 million subscribers by the end of 2025 due to its high value proposition, featuring hits like Asgard’s Wrath 2 and Moss. Growth was further accelerated by bundling the service with new Quest 3 purchases and offering aggressive promotions.
5. Why is Meta investing in AI instead of focusing purely on the metaverse now?
   Meta is prioritizing AI due to its immediate business returns and its ability to improve existing apps and ad tools. In late 2025, Meta explicitly shifted investment from “Metaverse” toward AI-enhanced wearables like smart glasses, which saw sales triple in 2025. Meta believes AI will eventually provide the foundation for more compelling metaverse experiences in the long term, making it a more practical current investment.
6. What were Reality Labs’ losses in 2025 and what do they indicate about Meta’s VR strategy?
   Reality Labs lost $19.1 billion in 2025, exceeding its 2024 losses. These figures indicate that Meta is still in a high-subsidy “growth mode” rather than focusing on immediate profitability. The massive R&D spending led to investor pressure, resulting in the “Year of Efficiency” layoffs. The strategy reveals that Meta views VR as a long-term play but is now balancing that ambition with a need to streamline operations.
7. Is the “metaverse” concept dead now that Meta changed direction?
   The metaverse is evolving rather than dying. Meta has reduced the hype and shifted toward a cross-platform approach, making Horizon Worlds available on mobile and PC. The focus has moved from a VR-only world to “mixed reality” and AR glasses. While the term is used less frequently, the building blocks—such as persistent avatars and virtual commerce—remain part of Meta’s incremental development plan.
8. How are third-party developers influencing Meta Quest’s future?
   Third-party developers are now the primary engine of Quest’s content pipeline. Successes from independent studios, such as Gorilla Tag and Ghosts of Tabor, prove that external creators can define the platform’s identity. Furthermore, third-party tools like PixelHair (realistic hair assets) and The View Keeper (Blender camera management) empower creators to produce higher-quality content more efficiently, making the ecosystem more robust as Meta scales back internal production.
9. What does Meta Quest’s success mean for VR gaming in general?
   Quest’s success validates standalone VR as a mass-market medium, encouraging major publishers and indie developers to invest in the space. It has normalized industry standards like inside-out tracking and motion controls. The platform’s sustainability (with over 100 titles making $1M+ in 2025) ensures that VR will continue to grow as a mainstream gaming category alongside consoles and PCs.
10. Can Meta Quest keep growing after all these layoffs and studio shutdowns?
    Growth is expected to continue through hardware iterations, such as the Quest 3 and rumored future lightweight models. While internal development has slowed, the healthy third-party pipeline and expanding use cases in fitness and productivity provide a strong foundation. Increased engagement and a growing global market suggest that Quest can maintain a steady, sustainable growth trajectory.

Conclusion

Meta’s experience through 2025 demonstrates resilience as the Quest platform set new records despite internal restructuring. The all-time high engagement was driven by a robust ecosystem that shifted Meta’s role from a primary content creator to a platform provider. Key themes from this period include:

1. Quality Content Prevails: Gaming remains the core driver of VR, with high engagement debunking the narrative that the medium is dying. Third-party developers have become the essential stewards of the platform’s library.
2. Strategic Shift: Meta’s reallocation of resources toward AI and AR represents a pragmatic evolution. The company is now focusing on the intersection of AI and wearables, viewing the metaverse as a long-term, multi-platform goal rather than a VR-exclusive one.
3. Collaboration: The future of VR is a symbiotic relationship between Meta’s hardware and the broader developer community’s software. This collaborative effort ensures diverse content ranges from social play to fitness and professional tools.
4. Metrics of Maturity: While Reality Labs continues to see multi-billion dollar losses, the success of titles grossing over $1M and the rise in subscription revenue indicate a maturing market. Meta’s move to cut costs while maintaining hardware innovation suggests a more disciplined path forward.

In summary, Meta Quest’s milestones in 2025 mark a hard-earned maturity for the VR industry. The platform has transitioned from an enthusiast niche into a stable entertainment medium. As VR integrates with AI and AR, the technology is becoming a permanent and increasingly useful fixture in everyday life.

Sources and Citations

• UploadVR – “Quest Users Hit Record High In 2025 & More Than 100 Apps Made Over $1 Million” (David Heaney, Mar 17, 2026), https://www.uploadvr.com/quest-users-hit-record-high-2025-100-apps-1m/
• UploadVR – “Quest Users Hit Record High In 2025 & More Than 100 Apps Made Over $1 Million” (Chris Pruett quote, GDC 2026), https://www.uploadvr.com/quest-users-hit-record-high-2025-100-apps-1m/
• UploadVR – “Meta Closes Twisted Pixel, Armature & Sanzaru Games” (David Heaney & Ian Hamilton, Jan 13, 2026), https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-closes-twisted-pixel-armature-sanzaru/
• UploadVR – “Batman: Arkham Shadow Sequel Canceled As Camouflaj Sees Significant Layoffs” (David Heaney, Jan 15, 2026), https://www.uploadvr.com/batman-arkham-shadow-sequel-canceled-camouflaj-layoffs/
• UploadVR – “Meta Confirms ‘Shifting Some’ Funding ‘From Metaverse Toward AI Glasses’” (David Heaney, Dec 5, 2025), https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-shifting-funding-ai-glasses/
• Road to VR – “Quest Reached Record Number of Users in 2025, Pushing 100 VR Apps Over $1M” (Scott Hayden, Mar 17, 2026), https://www.roadtovr.com/quest-record-users-2025-100-vr-apps-1m/
• ShackNews – “Facebook (META) Reality Labs lost $19.193 billion in 2025” (TJ Denzer, Jan 28, 2026), https://www.shacknews.com/article/138620/meta-reality-labs-loss-2025
• UploadVR – “Quest’s Horizon+ Reaches 1 Million Active Subscribers” (David Heaney, Feb 20, 2026), https://www.uploadvr.com/quest-horizon-plus-1-million-subscribers/
• Road to VR – “‘Gorilla Tag’ Has Topped $100M in Revenue, Making it One of VR’s Most Successful Games” (Ben Lang, Jun 18, 2024), https://www.roadtovr.com/gorilla-tag-revenue-100-million/
• Road to VR – “Zuckerberg: Quest 2 ‘on track to be first mainstream VR headset’” (Ben Lang, Jan 27, 2021), https://www.roadtovr.com/zuckerberg-quest-2-mainstream-vr-headset/
• BlenderArtists Forum – “Pixelhair for blender – Finished Projects” (Yelzkizi/Daniel I., Jul 2023 & updates 2024), https://blenderartists.org/t/pixelhair-for-blender-finished-projects/1474309
• UploadVR – “Quest Users Hit Record High In 2025 & More Than 100 Apps Made Over $1 Million” (Horizon+ subs & developer payouts context), https://www.uploadvr.com/quest-users-hit-record-high-2025-100-apps-1m/
• UploadVR – “Quest Users Hit Record High In 2025 & More Than 100 Apps Made Over $1 Million” (context on layoffs vs growth), https://www.uploadvr.com/quest-users-hit-record-high-2025-100-apps-1m/

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