Meta spent $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 isn’t going to get any better.

Earlier this month, Meta reportedly laid off 10% of its employees at Reality Labs, its virtual reality division, resulting in up to 1,000 layoffs. Now, in a development that appears to be directly related, the company has revealed that the division suffered billions of dollars in losses last year.

Meta’s earnings report on Wednesday showed its troubled virtual reality business lost about $19.1 billion in 2025, slightly more than it lost in 2024 (losses that year were about $17.7 billion). According to the report, it recorded a loss of $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

These losses are equivalent to what the devices generated in revenue: $955 million in the fourth quarter and about $2.2 billion for all of 2025.

Mark Zuckerberg struck an optimistic tone about the company’s VR team during the company’s earnings call Wednesday, noting that losses are expected to be roughly the same in 2026.

“For Reality Labs, we are focusing most of our investments going forward on glasses and wearables, making Horizon a huge success on mobile, and making VR a profitable ecosystem,” Zuckerberg said. However, the CEO pointed out that deficits are expected to continue. “We expect Reality Labs’ losses this year to be similar to last year,” Zuckerberg said. “This year will be the peak as we begin to gradually reduce losses going forward.”

When Meta announced its move to the ‘Metaverse’ in 2021, the move was greeted with some skepticism, and the first year of its VR efforts faced harsh criticism, with the company being called an ‘international laughingstock’. Nearly 50 years later, that skepticism has not completely subsided. As its VR business continues to lose money and Meta continues its aggressive transition from VR to AI, it’s unclear exactly how it will turn the ailing business around.

Last week, CNBC reported that in addition to the layoffs, Meta was planning to close several VR studios, another sign of the company’s waning interest in virtual reality. The company also recently announced that it would be discontinuing its standalone Workrooms app, which introduced workers to a VR space they could use to hold meetings at work.