VR platform Rec Room to shut down in June 2026

Social VR gaming platform Rec Room has announced its closure on June 1, 2026.

In a blog post, developer Rec Room Inc. said that despite the platform’s success, it “never quite figured out how to make Rec Room a sustainably profitable business.”

“Our costs always ended up overwhelming the revenue we brought in,” it said. “We spent a long time trying to find a way to make the numbers work. But with the recent shift in the VR market, along with broader headwinds in gaming, the path to profitability has gotten tough enough that we’ve made the difficult decision to shut things down.

“We’re making this decision now, while we still have the ability to wind things down thoughtfully and do right by the people who built this with us.”

From June 1, players will not be able to log in to or play Rec Room. The website will go offline, and services related to Rec Room Studio will be unavailable.

The latest update means users can no longer create new accounts, add friends, sign up for Rec Room+, receive token rewards, or create new monetised UGC content.

From May 1, players can no longer redeem gift cards for tokens but can continue spending tokens they already have until the platform shuts down.

Last August, “roughly half” of Rec Room Inc.’s team was laid off.

“This is not the outcome any of us hoped for, and [CEO and co-founder] Nick and I take full responsibility for the position we’re in,” CCO Cameron Brown said in a statement.

“We invested heavily in creation tools across PC, VR, consoles, and mobile. But the reality has been harsh. The most impactful creation comes almost entirely from creators on PC (using mouse and keyboard, and Studio) and VR.”

Brown continued: “The reality is that what we’ve been doing these past few years wasn’t working for the team, for the company or for our players. That’s on Nick and me. It’s our job to align those needs, and we failed. This change, however imperfect, and however shocking, gives a chance to reset and correct our course.”

The Seattle-based developer was founded in April 2016. It raised $145 million in a 2021 funding round, bringing its valuation to $3.5 billion.