Private Region Numbers Grows For Second Week In A Row

It's been about two weeks since Linden Lab put into effect their reduction in what they charge for land tiers (for non-grandfathered sims), while raising the fee to buy Linden dollars. While the Lab gave no clear reason for their move beyond "to keep Second Life a vibrant world," it's strongly believed the reason for this move was to stop the overall long slow decline in the number of sims. A recent report by Tyche Shepard, who keeps track of new sims and sim numbers in Second Life showed something promising. Total numbers of private estates show growth for two weeks in a row, 35 the past week and 34 the one before for a total growth of 69 sims.


We are now two weeks into the new pricing regime for Private Estates and this is now the 2nd week of positive growth of the grid
Net Growth stands at 35 regions this week (last week was 34) All this week's net growth was among private Estates .
Overall , taking into account last weeks closure of the 24 Temporary SL15B regions , Net Change in Private Estates since the new prices stands at 94 New or Returned Regions

I've no record of Region type at the moment, and therefore no estimate of overall change in revenue for the Lab, but the initial change in demand doesn't seem enough to increase overall revenue at this stage.

Two weeks is obviously too short a time to declare the slump over, but it does raise hopes that the long slow decline, from over 25,000 in June 2010 to just over 16,000 now, might, just might, be over. We'll need at least another two weeks or so before we can say so.

Source: SL Universe 

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager.

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: Second Life Revenue Reportedly Down By Half In Eight Years, Number of Sims Drops Below 24K

Some troubling news was posted on the SL Universe forums by Tyche Shepard, and passed on by Hamlet Au. In Tyche's private estate survey in January, she estimated that the revenue Linden Lab makes from Second Life sim tiers had dropped to just under three million US dollars a year, or 36 million a year. Hamlet Au when seeing this information calculated that as the Lab makes about 80% of it's money from Second Life through tier payments, the rest through premium accounts, Linden dollar purchases, and fees, their total income from the virtual world was about 50 million US dollars.

While that is a lot of money, consider that in 2009 Linden Lab's income was estimated to be about 100 million dollars. This represents a drop in income of fifty percent. The Lab is making only half now what they were eight years ago.

This drop in revenue can easily be seen as an explanation for certain actions Linden Lab has taken over the past year and a half, such as reducing the set-up fees for getting sims, lowering sim tiers for a time (in exchange for a fee), and increasing the prim capacity for sims. It's also a partial explanation for why Linden Lab is making a gamble with Sansar. They're not making the money they used to.

But according to Tyche's statistics from January 2, despite the moves Linden Lab has made, the overall slow decline of the number of sims in Second Life continued throughout 2016. In the first quarter of 2017, the total number of sims dropped below 24,000. Linden Lab may very well conclude Sansar is their sole chance for stopping their revenue slide. Hamlet's earlier observation that Sansar was starting to remind him more and more of the old Blue Mars virtual world, which after less than two years was pretty much on it's way out, is not exactly an encouraging sign.

While Sansar may not be "do or die" for Linden Lab as Hamlet also suggested, it's failure would be a huge blow as it would mean a significant investment in resources would get no return, and limit the Lab's options. In the short term, it might mean more tier reductions and more advantages for premium account members as Linden Lab takes more steps to try to stop the decline. In the long term if the decline continues, the Lab may decide to let some of it's members go in a "restructuring," reduce customer service, and other steps to reduce their overhead. And if that doesn't work, well, that may be best left unmentioned.

Sources: New World Notes, SL Universe, Second Life Grid Survey

Bixyl Shuftan

New Grouping of Linden Sims in Second Life Appears

Daniel Voyager reported on the appearance of a number of new sims on the map. The sims are currently under Linden control and closed to the public. Most are rated adult. He had gotten the information about this 60 sim area with a few nearby individual sims from Tyche Shephard. They are given the names HR Build, HC Build, and HIH Build followed by numbers or numbers and letters.

Daniel speculated that this region might be a new Linden Homes area, but the purpose of this new Linden region remains unknown, at least for now.

Growth in Private Estates, But Total Sim Numbers Still Dropping

Daniel Voyager had a couple things to say about recent statistical data of Second Life. For a change, there was a little good news as far as trends in sim numbers was concerned. Tyche Shepard's data on new private estates saw a small increase, the first one recorded on the Grid in forty weeks. Unfortunetly, the declining numbers of mainland sims made up for this, "Since the start of 2013, the net number of private regions lost  now stands at 510 (2.4% in 13 weeks).

While the growth in private sims is good news, it's unsure wether or not this trend will continue. Daniel Voyager commented, "… it needs changes from Linden Lab to start the recovery again."

For Daniel Voyager's article, Click Here.