Meta VR Start Developer Competition 2026
The future of VR is in your hands—literally. Are you ready to answer the call and compete for a share of $1M in cash prizes?
Last year, over 2,900 developers joined the competition and delivered more than 650 submissions that pushed the boundaries of immersive technology. This year, we’re raising the bar again.
The Meta VR Start Developer Competition is an eight-week challenge inviting Start program members to create new and updated hands-first experiences in Entertainment, Gaming, and Productivity for Meta VR devices, including Meta VR Glasses and Meta Quest.
Whether you’re a first-time Start developer with a breakthrough idea or a seasoned developer ready to showcase what’s possible with the latest platform capabilities, this is your moment to help define the future of VR.
Get Started
- Register to participate in the competition on Devpost.
- Design a hands-first experience that can operate end-to-end without ever pairing controllers. Controller support is welcome, but not required.
- Prioritize a seated-optimized experience for VR that’s easy to get into and out of – think a fast cold start, clean pause/resume, and something satisfying in 10 minutes or less.
- Take your experience further to compete for special awards like Best Social & Multiplayer Experience, Best Agentic Interaction, Best Accessibility Forward Interaction, and more.
- Boost your skills with live programming by Meta experts and Start mentors designed to support competition tracks.
- Not yet a member of Start? Apply to join.
What to Build
Showcase your creativity and choose the track and division that best fit your vision.
Pick Your Track
- Gaming: Games designed for hands-first or eyes and hands. Puzzle, strategy, casual, social, narrative—genres that thrive seated, without controllers.
- Entertainment: Lean-back media and content experiences—spatial cinema, interactive video, music visualization, immersive storytelling, spatial audio, media companion app (e.g., commentary tracks, popup production notes, social comments). Content designed to be consumed in any environment.
- Productivity: Apps that make you more effective anywhere or are designed around specific daily moments—multi-panel workspaces, task management, creative tools, or habits tied to a recurring context (morning routine, commute, wind-down).
Pick Your Division
- New Experience: Your project is conceived of and built within the competition window, beginning September 24, 2026. No pre-existing codebases, no shipped titles, no early access builds repurposed.
- Adapted/Significantly Updated Experience: This is a pre-existing project—any build, prototype, or published app that existed prior to September 24, 2026—with a meaningful new feature, mode, or platform integration shipped during the competition window.
Key Dates
- Competition submission period: September 24, 2026 (10:00 a.m. PST) - November 18, 2026 (12:00 p.m. PST)
- Winners announced: on or around December 11, 2026
Learn More
Check out the competition page on Devpost for more competition details and information on how to enter and submit your project. Terms and conditions apply. Official Rules are available on Devpost.
Get Support
Have questions or run into an issue? Post a comment on the main competition thread or Devpost and one of our community managers will assist. We can’t wait to see what you build!