Earlier this month, Meta laid off 10% of the staff for Reality Labs, its virtual reality unit, reportedly cutting around 1,000 employees. Now, in a development that seems directly related, the company revealed that the unit lost several billion dollars last year.

On Wednesday, Meta’s income report shows that its virtual reality business will lose about $19.1 billion in 2025, which is less than it lost in 2024 (that year, losses were around $17.7 billion). In its fourth quarter, the unit posted a loss of $6.2 billion, the report showed.

Those losses stood against what the unit generated in sales: $955 million in Q4 and about $2.2 billion in all of 2025.

During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg struck a tone of optimism for his company’s VR team while noting that losses in 2026 are expected to be about the same.

“For Reality Labs, we’re directing most of our investment into glasses and wearables going forward, while focusing on making Horizon a huge success on Mobile and making VR a viable ecosystem for years to come,” Zuckerberg said during the call. However, the CEO noted that losses are expected to continue. “I expect Reality Labs’ losses this year to be the same as last year,” Zuckerberg said, while announcing that this year “is likely to be the peak, as we begin to gradually reduce our losses going forward.”

When Meta announced a pivot towards the “metaverse” in 2021, the move was regarded with a certain amount of skepticism and, in the first year of its VR efforts, the company faced severe criticism – even called a “international humor.” Almost half a decade later, that doubt never subsided. As the VR business continues to lose money and Meta continues an aggressive pivot away from VR and toward AI, it’s unclear what exactly will turn the ailing business around.

Last week, CNBC reported thatin addition to the layoffs, Meta has plans to close a number of its VR studios — another sign that the company’s interest in virtual reality is waning. The company also recently announced that it would retiring its standalone Workrooms app – which the company provides to office workers as a VR space that can be used to hold meetings.