About Competition

Seeing the excitement around our last competition and all the incredible mobile worlds that came out of it we want to continue giving the opportunity to more creators to win. This is why we are excited to launch our second competition in 2025 with $1 million in cash prizes. This competition is designed to recognize and reward the most innovative updates to existing worlds on Horizon, with a laser-focus on well-crafted optimizations and experiences that highlight exceptional progression and sharing systems. Learn what it takes to win through our competition design guidance. 

Elevate Your Mobile World: Starting June 20 through July 21 (4 weeks), the "Elevate Your Mobile World" competition will reward 35 worlds with up to $1 million in prizes for the best updates to their existing published mobile worlds with a laser focus on Progression and Sharing. The top 2 winners will each earn $100,000, while $800,000 will be shared among 33 other winners in multiple exciting categories. 

Build for Growth: With Meta Horizon’s expanding user base, this competition offers a unique opportunity to showcase your creations to a broader audience of players especially ahead of the seasonal holidays. Beyond the competition, winners, finalists and creators with high potential submissions will gain access to various creator bonuses and incentives, including creator spotlights on social media and world features on the Horizon feed, designed to enhance their worlds and support their growth as creators.

Build your Community: This competition is part of our commitment to supporting creators to build worlds that foster expression, play, progression, and social interaction. By participating, you'll join a community dedicated to elevating mobile experiences on Meta Horizon.

We can't wait to see the incredible updates to your Horizon on Mobile worlds  you'll bring to life.

Who Can Participate

This edition is open to:

• Existing members of the Meta Horizon Creator Program (MHCP) with a published world on Horizon Worlds.
• Not in the Meta Horizon Creator Program (MHCP) yet? Apply here to join and prepare for future competitions. With more competitions coming this year, membership ensures you're the first to know and ready to participate. For more information, visit the MHCP FAQ here.

View full competition rules

• ❇️ Technical
  To score highly here, the updated world will need to offer rich and interesting interactivity or functionality. The updated world should feel solid and reliable, with minimal bugs and no gameplay blocking issues across intended player devices.
• ❇️ Visuals and Sound
  To score highly here, the art of the updated world or game should be visually appealing and enhance the overall experience. It should be well-designed and cohesive, with great attention to detail.
• ❇️ Experience Design
  To score highly in experience design, the world should consider the essence of the player’s experience from the moment they arrive in the world. Great experience design will lead the player to quickly grasp where to go and what to do.
• ❇️ Social
  To score highly in social, the world should offer ways for people to connect and find shared moments together. This may be related to a central mechanic in the world, but also can be related to the use of Horizon Worlds social features.
• Best Onboarding Experience
  An improvement that leads to an intuitive introduction, helping new players quickly understand mechanics and objectives and feel confident to dive deeper.
• Best Leaderboard
  An improvement that leads to a compelling leaderboard that encourages friendly competition and rewards progress, with a clear, fair, and fun design. Regular resets or seasonal challenges can add an extra layer of excitement and keep the experience fresh.
• Most Satisfying Unlock Moment
  An improvement that delivers an exhilarating moment when completing a quest or challenge, leaving players with a sense of triumph and satisfaction. Build quests and pvars around these moments.
• Most Satisfying Progression Rewards
  An improvement that leads to memorable and well-matched rewards for completing quests or achievements, enhancing the player's journey.
• Best Shop Gizmo
  An improvement that creates a seamless strategically-placed Shop Gizmo, offering a thoughtful and intuitive shopping experience that enhances gameplay.
• Funniest World
  An improvement that leads to consistently delivering humor and joy, making players laugh and smile throughout their experience. The humor should be well-crafted and integrated into the gameplay, creating a memorable and entertaining journey.
• Meme-y-Moment
  An improvement that captures the essence of internet culture with moments that are instantly recognizable and shareable as memes. These moments should be clever, relatable, and perfect for sharing with friends.
• Best Video Moment
  An improvement that creates cinematic moments worthy of being captured and shared as videos, visually and emotionally impactful.
• Best Teams API Implementation
  An improvement that effectively and creatively uses the Teams API to create a seamless and engaging experience for teams on Horizon. Experiences are so engaging that players naturally want to share and play with others.
• Best Use of Camera API
  An improvement that leads to using the camera API in an innovative or interesting way that brings style, interactivity or drama to the world.
• Fun in 20 seconds
  An improvement on engaging the players from the moment they arrive. Players know where to go, what to do, and are already enjoying themselves within 20 seconds of arrival.
• Can’t Put It Down
  An improvement that creates an enrapturing game experience, and keeps players engaged and coming back for more.
• Judges Choice
  Your discretion. Doesn’t fit into any of the other categories but demonstrate potential, uniqueness, and innovation beyond what is considered normal. Improvements that have pushed the boundaries of what is possible, is truly unique, and innovative.