Meta earned $164.5 billion in 2024 but VR/AR division made another loss

Facebook parent company Meta generated $164.5 billion in revenue across its reportable segments in 2024, making a total profit of almost $62.4 billion for the year.

This marked a 22% revenue increase over 2023 and a sizeable 59% increase in profit despite rising expenses.

Meta’s financial report noted that its family of apps – pertaining to Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and other services – generated $162.4 billion in revenue, up from $133 billion in 2023.

And as of the end of 2024, the company’s headcount had grown by 10% year-on-year to 74,067 people.

Virtually minded

Of Meta’s full-year revenue, 29.4% was generated during the fourth quarter, equating to $48.4 billion. The company made more than $20.8 billion in profit over that same period, accounting for 33.3% of the full year’s total.

Meta’s VR, AR and mixed reality segment specifically contributed almost $1.1 billion towards the fourth quarter’s revenue but made a loss of almost $5 billion in operations.

This was across Meta’s hardware, software and content initiatives for the segment, adding new context to the discontinuation of the Meta Quest Pro.

Meta’s Mixed Reality Labs previously lost $4.4 billion in Q3.

Meta’s CFO Susan Li did predict that Reality Labs would see significant increases in operating losses for 2024 as a whole due to its ongoing product development and ecosystem expansion.

Ultimately, the segment saw an operational loss of $17.7 billion for the full year, though marginally increased its revenue to $2.1 billion – versus $1.9 billion in 2023.

Commenting on the company’s financials more broadly, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg said: “We continue to make good progress on AI, glasses, and the future of social media. I’m excited to see these efforts scale further in 2025.”