Well, there goes the metaverse!

TechCrunch • January 19, 2026 • business

Key Points:

Meta has laid off roughly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division, about 10% of the unit’s staff, and shut down several VR game studios, signaling a major retreat from its metaverse ambitions.
The company, which rebranded as Meta in 2021 to focus on VR and the metaverse, is now shifting its priority toward AI technologies, as VR products and user adoption failed to meet expectations.
Despite investing approximately $73 billion into Reality Labs, Meta’s VR efforts struggled with declining headset sales, limited consumer demand, and safety concerns including reports of harassment within its virtual environments.
Meta’s high platform fees and early push for a VR app store met resistance from developers, and its met