The metaverse lost money. It also, in a sense, lost friends — Meta’s relationship with investors, employees, and the public was strained by years of defending an investment that kept generating losses without generating results. Horizon Worlds is being shut down on VR, off the Quest store in March and terminated on all VR devices by June 15. After close to $80 billion in losses, Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest bet has not just failed financially — it has left a complicated legacy of relationships to repair.
Investor relations took the most direct hit. Every quarter that Reality Labs reported billions in losses, Meta’s investors were asked to trust that the metaverse would eventually deliver returns commensurate with the investment. For years, Zuckerberg’s track record and personal conviction provided sufficient credibility. As the losses compounded without any visible commercial progress, that credibility frayed. The eventual pivot to AI was partly an acknowledgment that investor patience had limits.
Employee relations were also complicated. More than 1,000 Reality Labs employees were laid off in early 2025, following years of work on a platform that was ultimately discontinued. For many of those employees, the metaverse was a genuine professional commitment — they had built features, designed systems, and invested creative energy in a vision that their CEO had asked them to believe in. The shutdown represents a difficult reckoning for those who made that investment.
Reality Labs’ close to $80 billion in losses also affected Meta’s public reputation. The company’s image as a responsible steward of its resources was challenged by years of sustained investment in a product with such limited commercial traction. Public commentary about the disproportion between the investment and the impact was persistent and pointed.
Zuckerberg enters the AI era needing to repair each of these relationships — demonstrating to investors that AI investments are better managed, to employees that their work will be sustained if it shows commercial promise, and to the public that Meta’s resources are being deployed thoughtfully. The metaverse left a complicated relational legacy alongside its financial one.