Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has recently emphasised that it will be putting in efforts towards building a strong presence in the metaverse. It has made considerable investments for software and hardware development and expanded its horizons beyond the realm of social media.
One of the standout offerings from Meta has been Horizon Worlds, a social virtual reality (VR) platform for users of the company’s much-hyped Quest headset. It has already been featured in a Super Bowl ad by Meta and is regarded by founder Mark Zuckerberg as central to the company’s metaverse vision. A recent update released by Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, revealed that the userbase of Meta had grown considerably recently.
According to Cox, since the launch of Horizon Worlds to Canada and USA based Quest users last year, the offering’s user growth has been immense and and surpassed the 300 thousand mark. Joe Osborne from Meta verified that this was indeed the case and elaborated that the user count includes those of Horizon Worlds and the live event application Horizon Venues. The latter utilises the same mechanics as Horizon.
Horizon Worlds had a private beta prior to its release during last year’s December that let creators get access to some of the tools being offered on the platform. Horizon Worlds is similar in functionality to Minecraft and the gaming platform Roblox, as it enables people to create their personalised environments. Users can then invite others to spend time together within those and participate in games as their avatars. According to a recent report by Meta, there has been a total of 10 thousand different worlds created on Horizon Worlds till date. The company also revealed that it’s creator group on Facebook also has thousands of members.
The bigger picture will be clearer as a few more months go by, in terms of whether the Horizon Worlds offering will keep witnessing fast growth or be able to keep users interested. It is being estimated that the surge in users is linked to the high sales figures of Quest during the holiday season.
Meta has not revealed the total sales figures for its Quest headsets. If that data was available, it would be possible to understand the impact Horizon has had since the rollout. Estimates do suggest that more than 10 million Quest units have been sold till date. There are also plans to rollout metaverse offerings to the mobile audience, according to a recent statement by founder Zuckerberg.
According to Zuckerberg, those enjoying Horizon Worlds in virtual reality will definitely get a highly immersive experience, but others can be a part of it by visiting from the Instagram and Facebook applications of Meta. They may also be able to access even more features in the future. Horizon on mobile would make it a competitor on the social gaming stage. The offering is yet to be put to test by Meta as a vehicle for profits.
News a out further developments of Horizon Worlds is expected sometime this year.
