Your headset won't stop working next year. Here's what ends, what keeps running, and when buying a Quest 3S starts to make sense.
Meta is winding down its Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets. Horizon OS 2.13 is their final feature update, rolling out from January 2027 and reaching every headset by March 2027. Any newer OS feature after that is only for Quest 3, Quest 3S and later devices.
Your headset won't stop working. Meta says current games, the Meta Store, cross-play with newer Quests and PC VR through Link all carry on. The dates that matter:
For casual players and Link users, keeping a Quest 2 is fine. If you want new releases over the next few years, plan an upgrade to Quest 3S, which launched at $300 and matches Quest 2's look and feel with a faster chip.
Meta Quest 2 end of support has a date: the headset’s last feature update, Horizon OS 2.13, starts rolling out in January 2027 and should reach every Quest 2 and Quest Pro by March 2027. After that, the headsets you already own keep playing your games. They just stop getting anything new.
That’s the short answer most owners need. Meta confirmed the plan in a post for developers, and it covers both headsets because Quest Pro runs on the same chip as Quest 2. If you bought a Quest 2 for the kids a few holidays ago, or still use one for Beat Saber workouts, nothing breaks on a set day. What changes is slower: fewer new apps, no new features, and eventually a point where security fixes end too.
The wind-down happens in stages across 2027, not in one switch-off. Here is how it lines up:
Meta also says it will stop testing new OS and SDK releases against the two older headsets. In plain terms, once 2.13 lands, nobody at Meta is checking whether future software plays nicely with them.
Yes. Meta says the apps and games you have now stay fully functional, and owners can keep browsing the Meta Store, buying, downloading and playing. Multiplayer also stays on: if a game supports cross-play, a Quest 2 owner can still join friends on Quest 3 or Quest 3S.
PC VR through Link stays supported too, so if you plug your Quest 2 into a gaming PC to play SteamVR titles, that path isn’t being cut off. Developers can keep pushing patches, bug fixes and new content to games that already support the older headsets.
The one caveat is new features. A game that later adds something built on an OS feature released after March 2027 won’t offer that part on a Quest 2. Expect that gap to grow slowly rather than all at once.
The real risk isn’t Meta. It’s the studios. Once 2027 ends, there’s little reason for a developer to keep testing new versions on a six-year-old chip, and Meta’s rules let them stop. The one protection for players is a notice period: if dropping Quest 2 or Quest Pro would make you lose access to content or an essential service, the developer has to warn you at least 180 days ahead.
Developers have two tools for this. They can freeze a final Quest 2 build, so your copy keeps working but no longer updates, or they can stop selling the app for those headsets altogether. Games you already own should stay in your library either way.
Many owners will find support thins out soon after the start of 2028, once new submissions for the older headsets are closed. Online games that need regular updates to stay compatible with their servers are the ones to watch.
Meta has done this before, and the original Oculus Quest shows the pattern. That headset launched in May 2019. Meta announced its first changes in January 2023, and its last OS update was v50 in February 2023.
From there, the steps came roughly a year apart. New app submissions closed in May 2024, security updates and bug fixes ended in August 2024, and from January 2025 developers could no longer include Quest 1 support in app updates. For the first Quest, that last step, where app updates could leave it out entirely, came a few months after its security fixes ended. Meta has not announced any such step for Quest 2.
For most people, the sensible move is to keep using the headset you have. Here’s a simple way to think about it:
One privacy point: after security patches stop at the end of 2027, it’s wise to avoid using the headset’s browser for logins or payments. Games themselves carry less risk.
Meta now calls Quest 3 and Quest 3S the baseline for its VR players, and says apps built for them will carry forward to its next device, Meta VR Glasses, which use the same OS and developer tools. That makes either Quest 3 model the safe upgrade if you want years of new games.
Quest 3S is the closer match for Quest 2 owners. It pairs Quest 3’s chip and mixed reality features with optics and displays like the Quest 2’s, and it launched at $300 in October 2024, the same starting price as the Quest 2 in 2020. Quest 3 arrived in October 2023 at $500 with sharper lenses.
Meta VR Glasses are a different kind of product: smaller and much lighter than either Quest 3, with a newer chip and a higher-resolution AMOLED display, due in spring 2027 for about $1300. That’s a premium buy, not a Quest 2 replacement for most homes.
Quest 2 had a big run. It’s the best-selling VR headset so far, at around 20 million units, and it will end up with just over seven years of security updates. That’s a long life for a gadget that started at $300.
Feature updates end with Horizon OS 2.13, which reaches all headsets by March 2027. Security patches continue until the end of 2027.
No. Meta says existing apps, the store, cross-play and Link all keep working. Developers must give 180 days’ notice before removing access to content.
Probably not. With feature updates ending next year, a Quest 3S is the better buy for anyone planning to play new releases.
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