Rec Room: Shutdown Status and What You Can Still Do

Rec Room has shut down. Online services ended on 1 June 2026 at 12:00 PM Pacific, exactly ten years after the game launched (1 June 2016). You can no longer log in or play, and the rec.net website has gone offline. This guide explains what happened, what still works, how to use any data you exported, and where former players and creators went next.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the post-shutdown state (servers offline since 1 June 2026). Nothing here will bring the live game back; check the linked sources for any later official statements.

Quick Start

• The live game is gone. Rooms, Rec Room Originals like Paintball and Golden Trophy, friends lists, inventories and avatars all lived on Rec Room's servers. With the servers off, the Steam client cannot connect.
• Your purchases no longer work. Tokens could not be spent after 1 June 2026. Avatar items, room keys and Rec Room+ perks were tied to the online service.
• Refund windows have closed. Unused gift card balances were refundable via support@recroom.com only between 1 May and 15 June 2026. Rec Room+ multi-month plans (3, 6 and 12 months) were refunded automatically for the unused portion.
• Creators: exported data is what you have. A data export tool shipped in the Steam PC build on 6 April 2026. If you exported your rooms and inventions before the shutdown, keep those files safe — they cannot be regenerated now.
• Rec Room Studio has a limited offline mode. Per the official shutdown post, Rec Room Studio continues to run offline and can open cached rooms on your local computer. This is the only official way to look at your builds after the shutdown.
• Photos and your "final report card" avatar were offered as downloads before closing. If you saved them, back them up.
• Do not install "revival" clients or unofficial tools that ask for your old login. There is no official private-server release; treat anything claiming to be one with suspicion.

Shutdown Timeline

Date | What happened

1 June 2016 | Rec Room launches

Late 2025 | PSVR support sunset (players gifted a PSVR profile badge)

30 March 2026 | "School's Out" update: shutdown announced for 1 June. New accounts, new friend requests, Rec Room+ sign-ups and new monetized creations disabled; token rewards and Room Rewards end; first-party store content discounted 80 percent; several Rec Room+ perks unlocked for everyone

6 April 2026 | Creation data export tools ship in the Steam PC build only

30 April 2026 | Last day to redeem gift cards

1 May 2026 | Token purchases stop; new Partnered Creator registrations halted; gift card refund window opens

18 May 2026 (23:59 UTC) | Creator token earnings stop

1 June 2026, noon PT | Logins end; Rec Room and Rec Room Studio online services (including Studio build servers) go offline; final creator payouts processed

2 June 2026 | Game removed from Steam, PlayStation, App Store and Google Play (per Wikipedia)

9 June 2026 | rec.net and its APIs shut down (per Wikipedia)

15 June 2026 | Gift card refund window closes

Why it closed: the studio said it could not reach sustainable profitability despite reaching around 150 million players, citing a shift in the VR market and broader headwinds in gaming; costs consistently outran revenue.

What Still Works (and What Does Not)

Thing | Status after 1 June 2026

Logging in and playing any room | Not possible

Rec Room Originals (Paintball, Laser Tag, Golden Trophy, Dodgeball, etc.) | Not possible — server-hosted

Friends, parties, messages | Gone

Tokens and purchased items | Unusable

rec.net profiles, photos, room pages | Offline

Rec Room Studio | Limited offline mode; can open cached rooms locally

Exported room/invention/cloud data | Yours to keep, if you exported before shutdown

Downloaded photos and report card avatar | Yours to keep, if you saved them

For Creators: Using Your Exported Data

The export tool deliberately did not produce a playable copy of a room — that would require Rec Room's servers. Instead, it downloaded the underlying room, invention and cloud data in formats intended to help you rebuild your experience elsewhere, for example as a standalone Unity app.

What to do with an export

• Back it up in two places (local drive plus cloud or external drive). Nobody can regenerate it now.
• Inventory what you have. Separate geometry and asset data, invention data, and any cloud variables or save data.
• Rebuild in a general-purpose engine. Rec Room Studio was built on Unity, so Unity is the most natural target for recreating layouts and assets. Logic written in Circuits V2 will need to be rewritten in the new engine's scripting language — plan to use your circuit graphs as a design document rather than something you can import.
• Keep it simple first. Recreate the layout and core loop before rebuilding every detail.
• Respect rights. Items and assets from Rec Room's first-party library or other creators may not be yours to redistribute. Rebuild with your own assets or properly licensed ones.

Rec Room Studio offline

• Open Rec Room Studio on the same machine you used before; it can load rooms cached locally.
• Anything not cached on that machine cannot be downloaded any more.
• Treat it as a viewer and reference tool for rebuilding, not as a way to host or share games.

If You Did Not Export

Unfortunately, room data that was not exported or cached locally is not recoverable through any official route. What you can still salvage:

• Screenshots and videos you took yourself, from Steam's screenshot folder, your VR headset gallery, or recording software.
• Old uploads to YouTube, TikTok, Reddit or Discord — use them as reference for rebuilding.
• Collaborators' copies: if you co-built a room, a co-owner may have exported or cached it.

Where Players and Creators Went

Rec Room's mix of social hangouts, user-generated games and cross-play from phones to VR has no single direct replacement. Former players typically moved to other social or creation platforms; which one suits you depends on what you did in Rec Room:

If you mainly... | Look for a platform that offers...

Hung out socially in VR | Social VR spaces with avatars, voice and friends lists

Played quick party games like Paintball | Multiplayer party or shooter games with cross-play

Built rooms and games with the Maker Pen and Circuits | A user-generated-content platform with visual scripting, or a general engine like Unity

Made money as a Partnered Creator | A UGC platform with a creator revenue programme — read its terms carefully

Many Rec Room communities also moved to Discord servers to stay in touch; the official Discord and subreddit were the support channels during the shutdown.

A Short History (for context)

• Founded by Against Gravity (later Rec Room Inc.) in Seattle, Rec Room launched in 2016 as a VR social game and grew into a cross-platform UGC hub spanning PC, consoles, standalone VR headsets and mobile.
• Rec Room Originals such as Paintball, Laser Tag and Golden Trophy were developer-made games that also paid token rewards.
• The Maker Pen and Circuits V1/V2 let players build and script rooms; Rec Room Studio, a Unity-based professional toolset announced in 2022, became free by 2024.
• The company raised large funding rounds in 2021 (reaching a reported 3.5 billion dollar valuation) but ultimately could not reach profitability.
• At closing, the studio said over 150 million players had made more than 500 million friendships on the platform.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Assuming the Steam client still works offline. It does not; the game required its servers.
• Deleting your Rec Room Studio install. If it holds cached rooms, that cache may be the last copy of your work.
• Trusting "Rec Room private server" downloads. No official server software was released; unofficial tools that want account credentials are a security risk.
• Keeping only one copy of exported data.
• Re-uploading others' assets from your export to another platform without permission.

Advanced Tips

• Archive Circuits logic as diagrams. Screenshots or exported graphs of your CV2 logic are the fastest way to port game mechanics to another engine.
• Document your room — rules, win conditions, spawn logic, UI flow — while you still remember it.
• Rebuild multiplayer deliberately. Rec Room handled networking for you; in a standalone Unity project you will need a networking solution and hosting.
• Rally your community early. If your room had regulars, a Discord or new-platform group keeps them together while you rebuild.

FAQ

Is Rec Room shut down permanently? Yes. Rec Room closed on 1 June 2026 at 12:00 PM PT, and the company announced no successor platform.

Can I still play Rec Room offline? No. The game itself cannot run without its servers, and it was pulled from the Steam, PlayStation, Apple and Google stores on 2 June 2026. Only Rec Room Studio has a limited offline mode for opening cached rooms.

Can I still get a refund? Rec Room+ multi-month subscriptions were refunded automatically. The gift card refund window (1 May to 15 June 2026, via support@recroom.com) has closed. Tokens have no remaining value.

Can I still export my rooms? No. The export tool needed the servers and only worked before 1 June 2026, in the Steam PC build.

Why did Rec Room shut down? The company said costs consistently outran revenue and it could not reach sustainable profitability, citing changes in the VR market and wider industry headwinds.

Will Rec Room come back? Nothing has been announced. Treat any claim of a revival with caution unless it comes from official channels.

Sources

• Rec Room blog: School's Out for Rec Room (shutdown announcement)
• Rec Room Steam news (School's Out update, data export announcement)
• Rec Room on Steam
• Rec Room (video game) — Wikipedia