Meta confirms Horizon Worlds creators must pay fees of up to 47.5 percent to sell virtual goods

Meta has confirmed that anyone looking to sell virtual wares in its Horizon Worlds metaverse will be charged platform fees of up to 47.5 percent.

As reported by Business Insider and confirmed by a Meta spokesperson, the company formerly known as Facebook has begun testing virtual sales insides its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform, letting creators sell digital items and effects.

"Someone could make and sell attachable accessories for a fashion world or offer paid access to a new part of a world," said Meta, explaining how those transactions might take shape in a recent blog post.

In doing so, however, Horizon Worlds sellers will be charged the Meta Quest's standard 30 percent platform fee -- and will also need to pay Horizon Worlds' own 25 percent sales fee on top of that.

"If a creator sells an item for $1.00, then the Meta Quest Store fee would be $0.30 and the Horizon Platform fee would be $0.17 (25 percent of the remainder), leaving $0.53 for the Creator before any applicable taxes," a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider, breaking down the math.

"Over time, we plan to bring Horizon Worlds to more platforms and so the platform fee won't always be going to Meta. As Horizon Worlds rolls out to more platforms like mobile, we expect those platforms to charge their own fee. The Horizon Worlds fee which is 25 percent of the remainder would be applied after any relevant hardware platform fee has been applied."

Meta said it will begin testing Horizon Worlds' monetization tools with a "handful" of creators, but confirmed the ability to buy and sell virtual products its part of its "long term vision for the metaverse."