The Metaverse: Did the Dream End Before It Began? The Story of $70 Billion That Vanished

Hey, remember a few years ago when everyone on social media was talking about the metaverse like it was some kind of digital promised land? They kept telling us: "Get ready, real life is over—everyone’s moving to the virtual world." The hype was relentless. Mark Zuckerberg, the guy who changed social media as we know it, went all in on this new frontier. He even rebranded his company from Facebook to Meta just to prove he meant business. And honestly? Back then, it really felt like a dream that was bound to come true.

But then… just last week, news dropped that felt like a gut punch to anyone following the story. Meta’s massive metaverse project, Horizon Worlds, officially shut down. And it didn’t just shut down—it took nearly $70 billion down with it. Seventy billion dollars! A number that makes you stop and think: was this all just an illusion? Did the whole world fall for a shiny idea that, up close, turned out to be hollow?

From "The Family Experiment" to Billionaires Looking for an Escape

This whole saga reminds me of two books that came out in recent years. If you’d read them five years ago, you’d probably think the authors were either overly pessimistic or had a crystal ball. The first is "The Family Experiment". It’s about a family diving into a virtual world—and how that world slowly becomes a beautiful prison instead of a sanctuary. The second, which caused quite a stir, is "Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires." This one digs into how Silicon Valley’s wealthiest elites fantasize about building virtual worlds—not to connect people, but to escape from the messy reality they helped create. Instead of tackling real-world problems, they’d rather build gated digital communities for themselves and their inner circle. Strange, right?

And that’s essentially what happened with Zuckerberg’s project. A platform that was supposed to be for everyone turned into a massive bubble. People tried VR—at first, it was exciting. But soon enough, the novelty wore off. Sitting for hours with goggles strapped to your face, interacting with cartoonish avatars, just couldn’t compete with meeting friends at a café by the sea in Jeddah or Riyadh.

• Reason #1 for the failure: The cost. Expensive hardware that still needed constant iteration.
• Reason #2: The cold social experience. Let’s be honest—conversations in the metaverse felt like talking to a wall.
• Reason #3: The gap between the promise and reality. They promised endless worlds; what we got felt mostly empty.

What About Love and Connection? The "Nevermet" Story

In the middle of all this hype, apps like "Nevermet - VR Dating Metaverse" emerged. The idea was to find your soulmate in a virtual world before meeting in person. Cool concept, especially in an era where relationships feel more complicated than ever. But here’s the real question: can you genuinely connect with someone you’ve only met as an avatar?

On paper, it seemed perfect for introverts or anyone struggling with social anxiety. But reality proved otherwise. Human emotions can’t be boiled down to a few virtual gestures. Plenty of people tried the app, but most eventually went back to traditional dating apps. Why? Because they realized that real chemistry—actual touch, eye contact, body language—is what builds real relationships. Pixels just don’t cut it.

The Extinction of Real Human Experience

All of this brings me to another fascinating book: "The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World." This one gets at the real danger lurking beneath the metaverse hype. The risk wasn’t failing—it was succeeding to the point where we lost our humanity. Imagine a future where we’d rather stay home alone with goggles on than go outside for morning air or grab coffee with friends.

In that sense, the spectacular failure of Meta’s metaverse might actually have saved us from that fate. Sure, $70 billion went up in smoke (which is an insane amount of money, but it’s corporate money). What we gained in return, though, is a far more valuable lesson: No piece of technology can replace our fundamental human need for real connection and physical presence. Whether in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else in the world, we need reality—not an escape from it.

So, what do you think? Is this the end of the metaverse for good, or just a setback before it returns in a different form? Drop your thoughts in the comments—I don’t think this story is over yet, but it definitely ended in a way nobody expected.