Yesterday afternoon, Meta disclosed its metaverse division suffered losses of $2.81 billion in Q2. That puts the division’s year-to-date losses at a notable $5.77 billion. 

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The division, Meta Reality Labs, operates separately from Meta’s social media platforms and develops virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including VR headsets such as Quest and metaverse platforms such as Horizon Worlds.

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Reality Labs generated $452 million in revenue during the second quarter, up from $305 million last year and $695 million in the first quarter. The loss in Q2 was $2.8 billion, compared with a loss of $2.4 billion a year earlier and $2.96 billion in Q1.

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During Meta’s Q2 earning call on July 27, CEO Zuckerberg admitted that such losses would likely continue for several years until VR applications and its metaverse platform are ready to tap into the “massive opportunity” worth “hundreds of billions of dollars:”

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“The Metaverse is a massive opportunity for a number of reasons. I feel even more strongly now that developing these platforms will unlock hundreds of billions of dollars, if not, trillions over time.”

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“This is obviously a very expensive undertaking over the next several years,” Zuckerberg added, “I’m confident that we’re going to be glad that we played an important role in building this.”

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