This guide covers the monetization options available to VR developers selling on the Meta Horizon Store. Beyond listing tools, it explains how timing your revenue strategy—particularly around pre-launch—can make a real difference for studios working with limited runway.

The timing problem

Most developers focus on monetization as a launch-day concern. But for smaller studios especially, that timing creates a gap: development costs peak in the months before release, exactly when no revenue is coming in.

The tools in this section aren’t just about how to make money—they’re about when. Several features let you start generating revenue or building purchase intent well before your app ships.

ANNOUNCE ───────── PRE-LAUNCH ───────── LAUNCH ───────── POST-LAUNCH
    │                   │                  │                  │
    ▼                   ▼                  ▼                  ▼
 Coming Soon        Pre-orders          Full price         DLC / IAP
 Wishlists          Early Access        Launch promos      Subscriptions
 Community          Player feedback     Reviews            Bundles

Pre-launch options

Coming Soon and wishlists

You can create a Coming Soon listing up to 180 days before launch. This gives you a public Store page to point marketing toward and lets interested players add your app to their wishlist. Wishlists don’t generate revenue directly, but they do two useful things: they give you a signal of demand, and they create a pool of players who’ll be notified when you launch or run a sale.

Pre-orders

Pre-orders let players purchase your app before release. The revenue comes in before launch, which can help fund final development and marketing. Players who pre-order also tend to show up on day one, which helps with early reviews and word-of-mouth.

Early Access

Early Access is a different approach: you release a playable version while development continues. Players understand they’re buying into something unfinished. This generates revenue earlier in the cycle and gives you real feedback to shape the final product. It works well for some games and audiences, less well for others—the linked guide covers what to consider.

Choosing a monetization model

Your base pricing model depends on what you’re building and who you’re building it for.

Approach	When it tends to work	Details
Paid upfront	Self-contained experiences, single-player, fixed content scope	Premium models
Free-to-play	Games that need large concurrent player bases, ongoing live service	F2P models
Transitioning	Paid games moving to free, or testing a model change	F2P transition

For deeper guidance on structuring your approach: Tips for applying your monetization framework

Secondary revenue: add-ons and subscriptions

Most successful apps layer additional revenue on top of their base model.

Add-ons (DLC and IAP)

Downloadable content and in-app purchases extend the revenue life of your app. DLC works well for substantial content drops; IAP covers smaller purchases like cosmetics or consumables.

Tips for monetizing IAP

You can opt to display add-ons on your Store product page, which makes them visible to players browsing the Store rather than only accessible in-app.

Note: Some add-on types aren’t available to child users. See the child user restrictions documentation for Unity, Unreal, or Native.

Subscriptions

For apps with ongoing content or service components, subscriptions provide recurring revenue. This model requires you to deliver value continuously, but it also makes revenue more predictable.

Set up subscriptions

Test subscriptions

Subscription referrals (beta)

Subscriptions FAQ

Bundles and passes

Bundles – group multiple apps together at a combined price

Multi-team bundles – bundle with apps from other studios

Season passes – sell access to planned future content

Pricing and promotions

Setting and testing prices

Pricing overview

Adjust local pricing – set different prices for different countries, which can improve conversion in markets where US pricing doesn’t translate well

Price A/B testing – test different price points to find what converts best

Meta Credits

Promotional tools

Sales promotions – participate in platform sale events

Custom promo codes – create codes for marketing campaigns (also useful for tracking which campaigns drive actual purchases)

Targeted promo codes – reach specific player segments

Try Before You Buy – let players try your app before purchasing

Other programs

App referrals – players can share referral links

Meta Horizon+ – subscription service that includes access to select titles

Community and communication

The tools above work better when players already care about your app. Studios that communicate consistently during development—sharing progress, responding to feedback, being honest about timelines—tend to convert more wishlists to pre-orders and more pre-orders to positive launch-day reviews.

This isn’t a separate marketing task. It’s the context that makes these monetization features effective. A Coming Soon page with no one watching it doesn’t help much. The same page backed by a community that’s been following along for months is a different situation entirely.