Why Did People Leave the Metaverse: The Shutdown of Horizon Worlds
The Metaverse did not fail.
The way we tried to gather people did.
Think back to childhood, playing in the alleys. As you walked around, you would run into friends.
Kids playing here and there would slowly gather, and before you knew it, a group of twenty had formed.
No one planned it. No one sent invitations.
It just happened naturally, in a place where people were already passing through.
The alley was not somewhere you were invited to. You simply stepped outside, and it was there.
The space itself didn’t call people.
The people made the place worth coming back to. That’s why it wasn’t somewhere you had to go — it was somewhere you wanted to return to.
But after redevelopment, cities changed.
The roads became wider, the neighborhoods more organized, but people grew further apart. Spaces where you could randomly run into others disappeared.
Today, I can’t show my children the kind of alley culture I experienced growing up.
That’s why I believe the Metaverse should not be a massive virtual world.
It should be more like those alleys.
Not a place that forces people to gather, but a space where people naturally meet as they move, pause, and exist — where new interactions begin on top of that.
In 2020, COVID-19 changed everything.
We stopped going outside.
Meetings disappeared. Schools and offices were left empty.
In that disconnected world, people needed something to replace human connection.
That’s when Meta’s Horizon Worlds stepped in. Meta even changed its name, inviting people into a new digital world.
The avatars looked awkward. The graphics were far from immersive.
But at the time, it didn’t matter.
It was an escape.
People met, talked, and found a way to stay connected in a disconnected reality.
As VR devices slowly spread, many believed this would lead to something like Ready Player One — a fully immersive virtual world.
Back then, the Metaverse felt like a possible future.
But the excitement faded. People no longer stay there.
So we need to ask: why did people go there, and why did they leave?
The answer is simple.
People didn’t go because they loved the place. They went because they had nowhere else to go.
It wasn’t a place you wanted to stay — it was just a temporary solution.
These spaces were not like alleys where you could wander without purpose. They were designed around functions and goals.
So people didn’t live there. They only used it.
And once they were done, they left.
If we look at how people adopted smartphones, this becomes clearer.
Smartphones didn’t take people to a new world.
They simply combined things people were already doing.
People already carried cameras, listened to music while walking, and checked their phones when they rang.
The smartphone brought all of that into one device.
That’s why it felt natural. It didn’t replace life — it extended it.
We are seeing a similar shift today.
People are starting to move beyond screens.
They want to see information not just on a monitor, but in the space around them — at the size and position they choose.
The growing interest in wearable displays and smart glasses proves this.
Real innovation doesn’t come from forcing people into something new.
It comes when existing behaviors and desires come together into a new form.
The Metaverse should never be a destination.
It should not be another platform that calls people in.
It should work naturally on top of the space we already live in.
Not something you have to “log into,” but something that responds right where you are.
The internet has been trapped behind glass screens.
Now, it needs to come down into the physical world — onto the Earth we walk on.
Not as a separate reality, but as a layer on top of the one we already live in.
Not a world you travel to, but something that begins where you stand.
Not a platform that gathers people, but a system that allows people to meet and interact naturally — like alleys once did.
People don’t stay just because they are invited.
They stay when they want to.
And that is when a real space is created.
