The Meta Horizon Begin Developer Competitors 2025 will award new Quest apps and “important” updates a complete of $1.5 million in 32 prizes of as much as $100,000.
Meta Horizon Begin, initially known as Oculus Begin years in the past, is a program run by Meta that provides VR/MR builders direct entry to Meta developer relations employees in addition to a group Discord and “unique Meta occasions, superior technical training, group mentorship, software program credit, go-to-market steerage, and extra”.
Now, Meta is working a contest for Horizon Begin Program builders to construct or considerably replace Quest apps throughout leisure, “life-style”, and gaming. This is the listing of the primary awards and prizes:
- Finest Leisure Expertise: “An expertise that makes consuming or watching content material extra immersive, interactive, and progressive than conventional codecs.”
- $100,000 winner
- $60,000 runner-up
- $30,000 honorable point out
- Finest Way of life Expertise: “An expertise that enhances peoples’ day by day lives, how they get issues carried out, study new expertise, or join with others round shared pursuits.”
- $100,000 winner
- $60,000 runner-up
- $30,000 honorable point out
- Finest Social Recreation: “A recreation that connects individuals in actual time to play collectively on-line or in a colocated area.”
- $100,000 winner
- $60,000 runner-up
- $30,000 honorable point out
- Finest Informal Recreation: “A recreation that’s accessible, single-player, and designed for fast, partaking enjoyable.”
- $100,000 winner
- $60,000 runner-up
- $30,000 honorable point out
- Choose’s Selection: “This award is given to experiences that push the boundaries of what’s attainable and have created one thing actually distinctive and progressive.”
- $30,000 every for six winners
Moreover, there are eight “particular awards” for implementing particular options or utilizing particular SDKs and toolkits:
- Finest Implementation of Hand Interactions
- $50,000 every for 3 winners
- Finest Use of Passthrough Digicam Entry with AI
- $50,000 every for 3 winners
- Finest Immersive Expertise Constructed with Spatial SDK
- $50,000 every for two winners
- Finest Immersive Expertise Constructed with Immersive Internet SDK
- $30,000 every for two winners
- Finest Android App Leveraging Options Distinctive to Meta Quest
- Finest Android Utility App
- Finest Android App for Journey Mode
- Finest Expertise Constructed with React Native
Entries will be totally new tasks or “important” updates for an current Quest app, with Meta citing including hand monitoring assist, combined actuality, or multiplayer as examples of “important”. Primarily, for an replace to enter it might want to deliver a brand new modality.
The brand new competitors comes late in a 12 months the place Meta has awarded the creators of smartphone-focused Horizon Worlds a complete of $3.5 million throughout three competitions, and should allay some considerations that the corporate is just targeted on Horizon Worlds with no additional curiosity in apps.
The deadline for submitting a undertaking for consideration is December 9, and builders can enter the competitors at this URL. In case you’re not already a Meta Horizon Begin member, you will want to use first.

