Free-To-Play Apps Now Account For 70% Of Time Spent On Quest
Meta says that over 70% of time spent on Quest headsets is now in free-to-play apps.
Meta says that over 70% of time spent on Quest headsets is now in free-to-play apps.
Alongside a new developer blog focused on monetizing in-app purchases across the Horizon platform, Meta shared the 70% figure in an X post while posting the blog. Though this statistic isn't mentioned in the actual blog itself, Meta advised its suggested monetization strategies are “reflected in the fact that we’re seeing a significant shift in time spent on free-to-play apps on the platform.”
Little else is said about this subject in the developer blog, and it's not especially surprising news when it's been clear that Meta's actively pushing a free-to-play strategy on Quest. While free-to-play platforms like VRChat have been available on Quest for years, that's been more prominent recently with Meta's heavier focus on promoting Horizon Worlds, likely as a means of boosting headset retention.
However, that focus has led to increasing criticisms from developers who believe this approach has significantly harmed discoverability of paid apps. In our recent Quest to Horizon report, nearly two dozen developers expressed frustrations that this shift has created a significant impact on sales across 2024. Other prominent concerns included last year's App Lab merge and curation.
Henry Stockdale
Soon after our report went live, Meta released a blog post from Samantha Ryan, VP of Metaverse Content, aiming to address these concerns. Detailing the rise of in-app purchases and free-to-play content, Ryan claimed that the “total payment volume on the platform rose 12% in 2024, driven by significant growth of in-app purchases.”
“We don’t think F2P will replace premium apps — both models are likely to coexist,” Ryan wrote at the time, suggesting this increase can be attributed to “young people” and a “growing share of new users.” You can read Meta's previous response in full below.
Ian Hamilton
