Rec Room → VRChat

Rec Room closed on June 1, 2026. Its developer said the service never became sustainably profitable, and logins and the rec.net website ended at noon Pacific that day. Players who built rooms, collected items or kept friend lists there now need somewhere else to meet. VRChat is a long-running social VR platform that remains active, but it is a different kind of product, and the move is not a like-for-like replacement.

What happened to Rec Room

The closure was announced on March 30, 2026, as GamingOnLinux reported. According to a deadline summary at Virtual Reality News, new accounts, friend requests and RR+ renewals were disabled right away, token purchases ended on May 1, creator token earnings stopped on May 18, and wallet refund requests were open from May 1 to June 15. Tokens already earned could be spent until June 1, then expired.

What VRChat offers

VRChat is free on all platforms, according to its official site. It runs on PC and PC VR through Steam and Viveport, on Meta Quest and Pico headsets, and on iOS and Android. The optional VRChat+ subscription costs US$9.99 per month or US$99.99 per year on Steam and the Meta Quest Store, per the VRChat+ FAQ. It adds extras such as a nameplate icon, extra favorite slots, custom emoji and stickers.

Users must be at least 13, and those aged 13 to 17 need a parent’s or guardian’s consent, per VRChat’s legal terms. Optional age verification, which VRChat says is limited to VRChat+ subscribers, unlocks adult-only instances for verified users aged 18 or older, as described in the age verification announcement.

What moves over

• Social play: VRChat is built around meeting people in user-made worlds, in VR or on a flat screen.
• Cross-device access: headset, PC and phone users can share the same platform.
• Creator interest: people who built things in Rec Room can carry the skills into a creation workflow, though not the work itself.

What does not move over

• Rooms and inventions. Rec Room let creators download raw room and invention data until June 1, but playable rooms could not be exported because they depended on Rec Room’s servers, and no migration path to another platform was announced.
• Items, tokens and friend lists. There is no transfer to VRChat, and Rec Room’s own tokens expired on June 1.
• The in-game builder. Rec Room creators worked in its own Studio tools. VRChat’s creator tools are separate: its site describes an SDK built on Unity rather than a walled-garden editor, so building means using Unity on a computer.

Honest trade-offs

The creation model is the largest change. A Unity-based workflow gives more control but has a steeper learning curve than building inside the game. VRChat also hosts a wide range of user-made content, including age-gated instances, so parents of younger Rec Room players should review the 13-plus rule and the platform’s community guidelines before switching a child over.

The site lists a Creator Economy in which creators keep 50 percent of earnings, which may interest former Rec Room creators who sold items, though eligibility rules apply and are set out in VRChat’s creator economy terms.

Who should switch

Players who mainly want to hang out, join friends and explore user-made spaces will find VRChat the closest active option. Creators who relied on Rec Room’s in-game builder should expect to learn new tools, and anyone who valued the earnings system should read the creator economy rules before investing time.