Meta Horizon Engine Brings 4x Faster World Loading & 100+ User Instances

Meta Horizon Engine replaces the Unity runtime of Horizon Worlds, and Meta says it brings 4x faster loading and 100+ users in the same instance.

During Meta Connect 2025 today, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Meta has spent "the last couple of years" building the new engine "from scratch".

"This engine is fully optimized for bringing the metaverse to life. It is much faster performance and to load things, much better graphics, much easier to create with", Zuckerberg claimed.

"It's more like loading a webpage than loading an entire new game," he boasted of the improved loading speed.

Zuckerberg revealed that Horizon Engine already shipped in Quest v81 PTC's overhauled home system, set to arrive on the stable channel of Horizon OS soon.

Quest v81 PTC Completely Overhauls Your VR Home

Meta Horizon OS v81 PTC overhauls Quest’s VR home system, replacing all previous environments with a high-quality loft with free locomotion.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Horizon Engine seems to be rolling out on a world-by-world basis, as they need to be built with the upcoming Horizon Studio. A few first-party worlds already leverage it, including the new Horizon Central that you teleport to from the new home, as well as the new Horizon Arena for events.