Meta retains 'optimism' in VR after Reality Labs loses $83.6 billion in six years
It would be generous to say Meta's incursion into the mixed reality market has underwhelmed.
The company's Reality Labs division—which houses a number of game studios and the company formerly known as Oculus (you know, the one that makes Quest headsets)—recorded an annual loss of $19.19 billion during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. Revenue was also down 12 percent-year-on year.
That means the division has lost roughly $83.55 billion over the past six years.
Here's how those losses panned out, for context: 2020 ($6.62 billion), 2021 ($10.19 billion), 2022 ($13.71 billion), 2023 ($16.12 billion), 2024 ($17.72 billion), 2025 ($19.19 billion).
Despite the fact that Reality Labs has become more proficient at losing money than ushering in something even vaguely resembling the metaverse, Meta has remained bullish about the prospects and potential of the division.
In 2023, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged investor "discomfort," but suggested the division represented a "very long-term bet" that required massive investment in order to solve technical hurdles that would make devices more viable.
"I can't guarantee you that I'm going to be right about this bet," added Zuckerberg at the time, in what was a decidedly prophetic snippet.
Where does Meta's virtual reality business go from here?Indeed, layoffs have become commonplace within Reality Labs, with Meta regularly trimming its workforce while intimating its long-term plan was finally coming together.
Yet, mere weeks before announcing its latest final results, the company shuttered multiple VR studios housed within Reality Labs, including Asgard's Wrath developer Sanzaru Games, Deadpool VR maker Twisted Pixel Games, and Resident Evil 4 VR developer Armature Studio.
The company also laid off a number of employees at Batman: Arkham Shadow developer Camouflaj—reportedly leaving the studio with a "handful" of workers.
So, where does that leave the division? According to Meta CFO Susan Li, the company still has plenty of "optimism in the future of VR" and will invest continually in the market.
That said, Li also said "consumer adoption of VR has generally been on a slower growth path than wearables," which means Reality Labs must rebalance its portfolio.
"So, we are meaningfully reducing our investment in VR and Horizon this year, but were growing our investment in wearables to capitalize on the momentum that were seeing in our position as a market leader. That's the shape of the rebalancing of the portfolio so far," she added during an earning call.
Meta's newly-filed 10Q form provides more specifics. It notes that Reality Labs will spend roughly 70 percent of its operating expenses on wearables projects such as AI glasses, and just 30 percent on VR and Horizon initiatives—the latter of which includes Meta Quest headsets and software.
As for the losses? They look set to continue. "I expect Reality Labs losses this year to be similar to last year, and this will likely be the peak as we start to gradually reduce our losses going forward," said Zuckerberg on an earnings call.
