Meta’s Empty Metaverse World Demonstrates Zuckerberg’s Sad Struggles!

Horizon World's user base has steadily declined since spring making it Meta's empty metaverse

Horizon Worlds, Meta's empty metaverse/social universe set in virtual reality (VR), is reportedly struggling to gain and keep users. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta's flagship Metaverse app Horizon Worlds has been struggling to gain new users. The company initially set a goal of reaching 500,000 active monthly users for the app by the end of the year, but has failed so far. Internal documents reveal that Meta has revised the goal to 280,000 recently, but still did not meet the number with only 200,000 active users, including some employees.

Horizon Worlds lets users create (or visit) spaces where they can hang out, play games, meet other people, and chat with friends. The platform's userbase actually increased tenfold following its expansion to all Quest users in the US and Canada last December, something the popularity of Meta's Quest 2 headset during last year's holiday shopping season likely contributed to as well.

Horizon World's user base has steadily declined since spring making it Meta's empty metaverse. In fact, most users don't return after the first month. Meta wanted users to build their own worlds but that number is less than 1%.  Only 9% of world is visited by at least 50 people, and most are never visited at all, claims the WSJ report. "An empty world is a sad world," noted one internal document. What is also making Meta worry is that retention rates for the Quest VR headset have dropped in each of the past three years. Shockingly, over half of the headsets aren't in use after six months.

The company has reportedly put Horizons on a "quality lockdown", meaning the app won't receive any new features. Meta will only focus on bugs and complaints, for now. The report comes at a time when Meta's stock has taken a nosedive. Meta shares are down over 60 per cent over the past year.  The Silicon Valley major has lost $700 billion in market value since September 2021.

"Feedback from our creators, users, playtesters, and many of us on the team is that the aggregate weight of papercuts, stability issues, and bugs is making it too hard for our community to experience the magic of Horizon," Shah wrote to employees, while also questioning why staffers aren't using the platform all that much themselves. Meta later rolled out a new tool that's supposed to make it easier to report bugs from its Horizon Worlds metaverse app, and even admitted in a blog post that the platform was "unstable" during a competition it recently held in the app.

Meta is popularly known for creating the social media we know today. The tech behemoth is behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the most popular mobile apps serving billions of users on a monthly basis. But over the past few years, Meta is not only facing intense competition from TikTok but is also facing scrutiny from regulators.

Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled a new VR headset, the Quest Pro, at an online event held for developers.

With a price tag of $1,499, Quest Pro is almost four times the price of Meta's current headset, the Quest 2, which starts at $399. It boasts thinner lenses, a curved battery around the head strap at the back, and controllers that self-track. The headset also allows users to see their real environment around the periphery of the screen.

Quest Pro has mixed reality capabilities, unlike its predecessor – meaning digital content can be viewed overlaid on that of real world. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said mixed reality was "the next major step for VR".