Empowering Meta Horizon Creators With a New $50M Fund and Advanced Tools

We’re committed to helping everyone building for Horizon find success on the platform. And today, we’re excited to announce a new $50 million Creator Fund alongside the early access release of our Meta Horizon Worlds desktop editor.

From lightweight multiplayer experiences to epic adventures and AAA titles, the Meta Horizon platform is home to a vast library of games, apps, and worlds to explore. For over a decade, we’ve invested in the XR ecosystem, helping developers of all stripes and sizes find success on our platform. The launch of Meta Quest 3S in 2024 marked a year of momentum, growth, and evolution on the platform that will be foundational to its future, with a broader range of people buying Quest and exploring the platform for the first time. And while premium games remain vital, entertainment, social, free-to-play, and mobile content are increasingly appealing to a new cohort of younger audiences.

By investing in mobile content, we can reach a lot of new people who don’t yet own a Quest headset and ultimately grow the pie for everyone. That’s why, as part of our $50 million Creator Fund for creators of mobile and MR worlds, we’re also announcing our first creator competition of the year with a focus on mobile.

There’s never been a better time to build for Horizon—or for consumers to jump in and explore. With the expansion to mobile, members of the MR community can now play with their friends with or without headsets. That’s great for consumers who want to share what they love with others because now, they easily can. It’s great for creators because it means your worlds can reach an expanded market. And with our $50 million Creator Fund, you have a new opportunity to build your business.

Now any creator of mobile and MR worlds in eligible countries can earn through our revamped Meta Horizon Creator Program, a vibrant creator community with access to earning opportunities, helpful resources, dedicated support and more.*

Each month, we’ll pay out bonuses from the Creator Fund to the makers of fun and engaging mobile and MR worlds. Bonuses will be tied to worlds’ contributions to the overall ecosystem across time spent, retention, and in-world purchases, so there are a variety of different ways for creators to maximize their earnings.

We’re building off the success of 2024’s inaugural Meta Horizon Creator Competition, which awarded a total $500,000 in prizes to the creators of 20 worlds, by launching a series of competitions for members of the Meta Horizon Creator Program in 2025 to encourage a wide variety of world building.

First up, we’re launching a $1 million mobile-focused competition on March 11. As MR enthusiasts pull their friends in to join the games and experiences they love via the Horizon mobile app or the web, those friends may stick with the ecosystem and seek out more content that resonates with them—ultimately experiencing all that MR has to offer. This year we’re investing in even more opportunities for creators to reach the roughly 3.3 billion active users across our apps, including Horizon and Facebook, with their worlds. Learn more about the competition and sign up for the Meta Horizon Creator Program to participate.

In addition to the newly formed Creator Fund and this year’s series of creator competitions, members of the Meta Horizon Creator Program will continue to be able to earn more by selling digital items and experiences as in-world-purchases, which will soon be available to even more players starting February 24 as we expand the Horizon economy to 18 additional countries.**

We’re also investing heavily to develop the tools that will enable and empower creators to build engaging worlds on mobile and in mixed reality. Starting today, any creator age 13+ in a country where Horizon Worlds is available can download our new desktop editor in early access and start building.

The desktop editor maps to traditional 2D and 3D app development workflows, letting you build new worlds on your PC. It supports new features like custom model import for building high-fidelity worlds, TypeScript support for complex game logic, and mobile optimization tools that let creators build more fun, interactive experiences. Check out our documentation for details.

In the US, the desktop editor also includes generative AI tools like sound effects and ambient audio generation and TypeScript generation, enabling creators to build worlds more efficiently.*** We’re in the beginning stages of the generative AI journey, and we’ll roll out new tools throughout the year. In the meantime, check out our documentation to learn more.

In 2024, we started testing these tools through our managed creator program. Creators who adopted them saw that they could do a lot more—and do it faster—when building worlds. We’ll continue to improve the desktop editor to introduce new tools and better support creators over time. And as we do, we look forward to working closely with creators to integrate feedback and continue building out our tooling together.

We can’t wait to see what you’ll build!