By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 25th, 2024
Reality Labs reported a total revenue of almost $1.9 billion in 2023, with more than half coming from sales of its Meta Quest 3 mixed reality headset which was released early in Q4.
Meta’s mixed-reality unit Reality Labs has reported over $1 billion in revenue and $4.65 billion in losses in the fourth quarter of 2023. This is according to the tech giant’s Q4 ‘23 earnings report released on Thursday.
At almost $1.1 billion in revenue, up from $727 million during the same period in 2022, Q4 of 2023 is one of the virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) research arm’s best quarters by revenue. Conversely, $4.65 billion is the highest quarterly loss yet, up from $4.48 billion during the same period in 2022.
Analysts polled by StreetAccount had estimated the division’s quarterly losses at 4.26 billion and its quarterly revenue at $768.2 million. The latest figures bring Reality Lab’s losses since the fourth quarter of 2020 to over $42 billion. Of that figure, $16.1 billion was lost in 2023 alone, a 17.5% increase from the year before. According to the company, more losses are to be expected.
“We expect operating losses to increase meaningfully year-over-year due to our ongoing product development efforts in augmented reality/virtual reality and our investments to further scale our ecosystem,” said the company’s Chief Financial Officer Susan Li.
Reality Labs also reported a total revenue of almost $1.9 billion in 2023, with more than half coming from sales of its Meta Quest 3 mixed reality headset which was released early in Q4.
VR and AR are the cornerstones of the Metaverse, which continues to be a focus of the company since it changed its name from Facebook to Meta in 2021. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also commented on AI, which, along with the Metaverse, is one of “major parts of their [our] long-term vision.”
“These days, there are a lot of questions about AI that I get, and that field is moving very quickly,” Zuckerberg said. “I still expect that this next generation of AR VR and [mixed reality] computing platforms to deliver a realistic sense of presence that will be the foundation for the future of social experiences.”
Overall, Meta’s 2023 revenue surpassed estimates from Wall Street research firm Zacks, rising 16% from 2022 to $134.9 billion last year.
The company also announced that it will pay its first-ever dividend of 50 cents a share on March 26 and intends “to pay a cash dividend on a quarterly basis going forward, subject to market conditions and approval by our board of directors.”