In 2022, Meta's virtual reality platform for the Meta Quest Headset, Horizon Worlds, faced difficulties attracting and retaining users. According to internal documents obtained by the Wall Streat Journal, the platform's monthly active users dropped from 300,000 in February 2022 to around 200,000. Meta then reduced its goal for the end of 2022 from 500,000 to 280,000 monthly active users. The Journal also reported that only 9% of the 10,000 separate worlds in Horizon Worlds are visited by more than 50 users, and most users don't return after their first month on the platform. Meta is focusing on a multiyear effort to improve its metaverse plans and address the platform's issues.

Horizon World’s growth in users for 2023 is highly uncertain, with Meta’s several rounds of layoffs, Meta’s move towards AI, and general scepticism towards the metaverse.