Meta has announced a new $50 million Creator Fund for developers building mobile and mixed reality (MR) experiences on its Horizon platform, alongside the early access relea

se of a desktop editor designed to streamline world creation.

The initiative arrives as Meta expands its focus beyond premium VR games to reach users who don’t yet own Quest headsets, positioning mobile content as a strategic growth driver for the platform’s ecosystem.

Creator Fund Introduces New Revenue Opportunities

The $50 million fund establishes a monthly bonus structure rewarding creators based on multiple performance metrics, including time spent, user retention, and in-world purchases.

“With the expansion to mobile, members of the MR community can now play with their friends with or without headsets,” Meta stated in a blog post. “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.”

The company also launched a series of creator competitions for 2025, beginning with a $1 million mobile-focused contest starting March 11. This follows the 2024 inaugural Meta Horizon Creator Competition, which awarded $500,000 in prizes across 20 worlds.

Meta expanded the Horizon economy to 18 additional countries on February 24, allowing more creators to monetize through in-world purchases. The Creator Program, previously limited to the U.S., UK, and Canada, now includes Australia, several European nations, and Taiwan.

Desktop Editor Enhances Development Capabilities

The newly released desktop editor, available in early access to creators aged 13 and older in regions where Horizon Worlds operates, has introduced features aligned with traditional development workflows.

“The desktop editor maps to traditional 2D and 3D app development workflows, letting you build new worlds on your PC,” the company explained. “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.”

For U.S.-based creators, the editor includes generative AI capabilities for sound effects, ambient audio, and TypeScript generation. Meta indicates these AI features represent “the beginning stages of the generative AI journey,” with plans to introduce additional tools throughout the year.

According to Meta, creators who tested these tools through its managed creator program “saw that they could do a lot more—and do it faster—when building worlds.”

The tech giant framed these investments against the backdrop of Quest 3S’s 2024 launch, described as “a year of momentum, growth, and evolution on the platform.” While acknowledging that “premium games remain vital,” Meta noted that “entertainment, social, free-to-play, and mobile content are increasingly appealing to a new cohort of younger audiences.”

The company positions these developments as continuing its decade-long investment in the XR ecosystem, emphasizing its commitment to helping “developers of all stripes and sizes find success on our platform.”

Roblox made a similar move almost a year ago, establishing a $35M Creator Fund to support creators making islands within its games.

According to Road to VR, the fund represents an exclamation mark on Meta’s strategic pivot toward Horizon Worlds over the past two years. The publication reports that Meta’s CTO told XR teams that the mobile version of Horizon Worlds “absolutely has to break out for our long-term plans to have a chance.” 

This aligns with Meta’s interface reorganization that has increasingly positioned Horizon Worlds content front and center. While some traditional VR developers have faced challenges amid this shift, industry trends show growing consumer preference for free-to-play models, with titles like Gorilla Tag generating over $100 million through in-app purchases despite being free to download.