Meta VR Start Developer Competition 2026

THE META VR START DEVELOPER COMPETITION IS BACK!
This year’s eight-week challenge calls on Start program members to build the next generation of Entertainment, Gaming, and Productivity experiences for Meta VR devices – including Meta VR Glasses and Meta Quest. We’re looking for hands-first apps that make interaction more natural and gameplay more intuitive than ever before.
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.
Whether you’re a first-time Start developer with a breakthrough idea or a seasoned creator ready to showcase what’s possible with the latest platform capabilities, this is your moment to help redefine the future of VR.
Here’s what’s waiting for you:
🤝 Build hands-first.
Design experiences powered by hand interactions that feel natural, responsive, and deeply immersive—no controllers required.
🛠️ Explore new tech.
Take advantage of the latest OS capabilities and device features across Meta VR Glasses and Meta Quest, accelerate your development with AI tooling, including Meta VR CLI.
🌍 Join a global community.
Boost your skills through mentor programming, collaborate with fellow developers, share insights, and learn from a thriving network of experienced VR developers.
🏆
Compete for $1M in cash prizes
with top prizes of $100,000.
The future of VR is in your hands
literally
.
We can’t wait to see what you build.
GETTING STAR

Requirements
WHAT TO BUILD
An experience built for Meta VR devices, aligned to at least one of three tracks.
Top awards go to the strongest entries in each track
, with
special awards
recognizing standout craft across all of them.
Pick Your Track
Entertainment
: Lean-back media and content experiences—spatial cinema, interactive video, music visualization, immersive storytelling, spatial audio, media companion apps (e.g., commentary tracks, popup production notes, social comments. Content designed to be consumed in any environment.
Gaming
: Games designed for hands-first or eyes and hands. Puzzle, strategy, casual, social, narrative—genres that thrive seated, without controllers.
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:
Start from a blank slate. The 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:
Already have something out there? Take it further. 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. Sponsor will determine in its own discretion if an update qualifies as significant.
Examples of significant updates include
, but are not limited to: implementing hand interactions as a new feature; adding multiplayer support; introducing a mixed reality (MR) interaction mode as a new feature; releasing a new user generated content creation tool.
Not significant updates
, including but not limited to: bug fixes or minor UI tweaks; cosmetic changes such as a new color scheme; performance optimization without new user-facing features.
Hard Requirements
Hands-first
: Your experience must be fully usable with hands, end-to-end. Controller support is welcome, but not required. The test is simple: can someone complete the entire experience without ever pairing a controller?
Policy Compliance
: Your experience must adhere to all relevant Meta VR/Start policies and terms (i.e.,
Meta VR Start Program Terms
,
Community Standards
,
Code of Conduct in VR Policy
,
Developer App Policies
,
Developer Content Guidelines
, and all other
Developer Policies
).
Design Guidelines
Seated-optimized:
Design for seated, stationary use. Limit roomscale, no large physical movement. Apply the airplane seat test: does every interaction work in a two-foot radius?
Easy to get into and out of:
Fast cold start, clean pause/resume, and something satisfying in 10 minutes or less. Apply the one bus stop test: can someone have a complete moment in a short ride?
Original, not a wrapper:
Core experience is Entrant-built. Thin wrappers around

Judging Criteria
Innovation & Creativity
Measures originality, creative ambition, and relevance to the chosen track.
Experience Design
Evaluates the quality of design, mechanics, and user journey tailored to the intended audience, emphasizing seated, hands-first, or specific context use.
Technical Implementation
Assesses technical expertise, reliability, and strategic use of platform tools, particularly the features that define hands-first experiences: gaze interactions, hand tracking, passthrough, spatial anchoring, and FoV-aware design.
Polish & Presentation
Assesses the overall quality of UI/UX, art direction, and sound design.