Meta Quest Usage Hits Record High in 2025 Despite Layoffs and Studio Closures

Meta’s virtual reality platform, Meta Quest, reached an all-time high in usage in 2025, showing strong growth in the VR gaming ecosystem even as the company went through studio closures and layoffs. The update was shared by Meta’s director of games, Chris Pruett, during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Festival of Gaming.

According to Meta, more than 100 VR titles on the Quest platform generated over $1 million in gross revenue in 2025, highlighting the growing commercial success of VR content. In-app purchase revenue increased by more than 10%, while the number of apps earning at least $500,000 grew by 20%, indicating that more developers are building profitable businesses on the platform.

Meta’s Reality Labs division, which handles VR and AR technologies, generated $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025. However, the division also recorded a loss of $19.2 billion, reflecting Meta’s continued heavy investment in virtual reality and immersive technology development.

Subscription revenue also saw double-digit growth, although subscriptions still represent a relatively small portion of the overall VR ecosystem and are not yet strongly connected to gaming. Meanwhile, Meta’s Horizon+ subscription service crossed one million subscribers and paid nearly $20 million to developers participating in the program.

Despite financial losses in its VR division, Meta says it is continuing to invest heavily in VR hardware, content and new audiences. Pruett stated that Meta remains the largest investor in VR globally and has multiple new initiatives in development, including new hardware and games.

He also explained Meta’s recent decision to remove Horizon Worlds from the Meta Horizon store. The company had originally believed that including Horizon Worlds in the store would improve device retention. However, after a year of testing and data analysis, the company found that the strategy did not significantly improve user retention. As a result, Meta decided to change its approach.

Pruett said this reflects Meta’s approach to innovation — testing ideas, analysing real data and adjusting strategy based on results. He also noted that feedback from developers played an important role in the decision, showing that Meta is actively listening to its developer community.