An avatar of Mark Zuckerberg, rides a hydrofoil during the virtual Facebook Connect event, where the company announced its rebranding as Meta, on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. Credit: Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has suffered another blow to his metaverse dream as his company has recorded yet more whopping losses.

The company’s Reality Labs unit, which looks after everything to do with the metaverse, recorded a $3.99bn operating loss, according to Meta’s first-quarter earnings report this week.

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Reality Labs brought in $339m in revenue during this quarter – which doesn’t come close to reaching the heights of the billions made in other areas of the company.

The earnings report comes after metaverse-mad Zuckerberg announced a major restructuring of his company which is expected to see more than 20,000 employees laid off.

Despite being labelled the “year of efficiency” by the CEO, there has been no slowdown in the amount of money being pumped into his grand metaverse vision.

So far, Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision has had a tough time coming to fruition.

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Meta’s flagship metaverse product, Horizon Worlds, was panned by critics and users for its outdated graphics and bare-bones gameplay.

“While many people envisioned the metaverse to look like Ready Player One, it seems we’re a long way off that,” Alan Vey, CEO and founder of blockchain solution company Aventus Network, previously told Verdict.

This total sales of VR headsets declined by 2% in 2022 – the same year that Meta announced it would be raising the price of its Quest 2 VR headset by $100.

However, Meta has begun to reduce the price of its headsets, cutting the cost of the Quest 2 VR and its high-end Quest Pro in March. The Quest Pro has been reduced by $500 to $1,000 and the Quest 2 has had a $70 decrease.

GlobalData is the parent company of Verdict and its sister publication