Rec Room Developers Explain Why the Online Game Is Closing Down for Good
"Over the past decade, Rec Room grew into something amazing, reaching over 150 million players and creators along the way."
Published May 26 2026, 2:11 p.m. ET
Although Rec Room never quite reached the same level as Roblox, it's a similar sandbox game platform where there are different sub-games available for users to play online. Users can also create their own games and servers to join friends. But now that it's ending, longtime gamers want to know why Rec Room is shutting down.
Rec Room started in 2016 and quickly grew into a platform that online gamers looked forward to being a part of. It even generated enough revenue to stay open for 10 years. But, unlike Roblox, which has seen celebrity collaborations and a wide range of success, Rec Room announced plans to shut the platform down permanently.
Why is Rec Room shutting down?
In March 2026, Rec Room announced plans on its blog to shut down the sandbox gaming platform. According to the statement, the reason came down to profits. Although the platform did reportedly make money over the years, the inability to be profitable at a steady rate led the developers to choose to shut down Rec Room.
"What this community built together is incredible, and something we'll always be proud of," the statement said. "Even today, millions of people are showing up to spend time in this fun and welcoming place every month. Despite this popularity, we never quite figured out how to make Rec Room a sustainably profitable business. Our costs always ended up overwhelming the revenue we brought in."
Although the team behind Rec Room did try and make the platform sustainable for longer than its 10-year run, it just didn't work out. The statement added, "With the recent shift in the VR market, along with broader headwinds in gaming, the path to profitability has gotten tough enough that we've made the difficult decision to shut things down."
According to GeekWire, Rec Room was, at one time, valued at more than $3 billion. But, it seems, over time, the cost to keep the business afloat and keep employees paid outweighed whatever money was coming in.
When will Rec Room shut down?
Per the statement, Rec Room will be shut down for good on June 1, 2026. Or, more specifically, at 12 p.m. PST on June 1. In the weeks leading up to the shutdown, Rec Room made sure no new users could create accounts, monetized content was stopped, and users could no longer receive reward tokens. It was all part of the gradual efforts to slowly ease players into the end of Rec Room.
In the days leading up to its official end, users on Reddit posted about how big of an impact Rec Room had on their lives.
"It's only just hitting me now that the game that got me through Covis is shutting down forever in 31 days," one user wrote.
Another person commented on the thread, "It's the game that brought me not just through Covid, but through a war starting in my country and my city being bombed."