Grid Statistics Show Slight Increase In Total Sims, Slight Drop in Private Sim Numbers

 

 With Second Life having recently turned 20 years old, one might wonder how have the sim numbers been lately? According to an article by Daniel Voyager, based on statistics from Tyche Shepard, there's been an overall increase in the number of sims since January. But the rate different kinds has been going up has been uneven.

 

According to the article, the number of private and Linden-owned sims combined, as of July 2, is 27,690. This is 31 sims higher than the figure of 27,659 on January 1. The growth was due in part to more Linden-owned sims, notably the ones in Bellisseria, from 9289 to 9360, an increase of 71. The number of private sims shrank a little from 18,370 to 18,330, a decrease of 40.

 

Of the numbers of people getting online, there's been a slight drop. In March, the concurrency averaged from a minimum of 28,000 to a maximum of 52,000. In July 2, it had gone to an average of a minimum of 27,000 to a maximum of 49,000. Daniel commented this was no reason for worry as this fit typical tends each year of fewer residents in the summertime, and more coming in for fall and winter. 

It was stated since the start of the year, 200,000 new accounts have been created. How many are alts and how many new people stayed is unknown.

 

Source: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: Logins Slightly Down, Sim Numbers Slightly Up Over 2022

 

 During the Coronaviris/Covid-19 Pandemic, the number of people using Second Life rose. Linden Lab stated in April 2020 that signups had gone up sixty percent since it started. In June 2020, CEO Ebbe Altberg stated the number of active users, those who were logging in at least once a month, had gone up to 900,000, a one-eighth of an increase over the previous year. 

Since then, the Lab has been quiet on just how many are coming in and staying in. There has been some speculation that with the Pandemic over, people have been leaving once more. In an article by Daniel Voyager, he stated that the daily peak has gone down slightly, from 55,000 about a year ago to about 48 to 53,000 this month. Checking the Second Life Grid Survey, this was the case. 

So it seems some people are leaving, though it appears to be a smaller number than those who joined during the Pandemic. Some who came back are sticking around, at least for now.

Of the number of sims, things looked more encouraging according to Daniel. With the growth of Belisseria, it should be no surprise to most that the total number of sims has continued to go up. He reported the total number at 27,659. This is an increase of over 2000 from two years ago. What will surprise some is that the majority of these, at least from two years ago, were private sims, from 17,024 to 18,370. But it should be noted almost all this increase was in 2021. The number of private sims didn't change much in just 2022, an overall increase of thirty-eight. But the number of Linden-owned sims grew at almost the same number, 378 more in 2021 and 380 more in 2022. 

 

So the number of private sims is still growing, but it appears economic troubles such as inflation causing the prices of everything from food and energy to rise and cut back on the amount of cash available for entertainment is resulting in fewer people getting new ones. 

So what do things have in store over the course of 2023? Difficult to say. If inflation drops and the global economy avoids a recession, we may see a few more people logging in and more people getting private sims. But if we end up with 1979-1980 style "stagflation," the news over the next several months may have some sim closings.

Source: Daniel Voyager's Blog

Bixyl Shuftan

Sansar Numbers Averaging Less Than 50 Users A Day

When Sansar was finally released several months ago. it initially got a number of curious lookers. But most were disappointed, and stopped coming. It still has a few advocates such as Draxtor Despress, and as his Hoverderby video earlier this month shows there's still groups of people who have fun there. But how many use the place on a regular basis? It turns out the number is surprisingly small. A recent article by Hamlet Au stated data provided by Sansar user Gindipple shows the next-generation virtual world's concurrency numbers averages just ten to fifty users a day!

"It's pretty obvious there isn't much growth right now," Hamlet quoted Gindipple, though the Sansar user remained optimiastic "I wouldn't be here if I didn't think it was set to win the game. So it's got a ways to go yet. They've been a bit slow on development, but there is some recent indications that they are starting to focus some on what I feel is important, allowing us programmers to create rich interactive scenes."

So why aren't people using Sansar? It's no big secret that Linden Lab has been looking beyond it's existing virtual world for users, "casting a wide net." But as the numbers show, it's failed to get more than a tiny number. So are practically all virtual world users in Second Life? Perhaps not as statistics about VR Chat show even after going down from a high of 20,000 users during the "Ugandan Knuckles" meme, this other next-generation virtual world still gets several thousand users a day.

Still, even the successful VR Chat is behind Second Life which after fifteen years still has tens of thousands of people online at any given time. With only one Sansar user for about every several hundred Second Life users, it's clear where Linden Lab's future, at least for the next decade, lies.

Sources: New World Notes, Steam

Bixyl Shuftan

Recent Inworldz Statistics Released, Total Users Nearing 100,000

Last week, some statistics about the Inworldz grid were released. Jim Tarber posted graphs in the InWorldz forum showing the growth of the virtual world. They show a slightly different rate of growth than what was suggested earlier as a result of Linden Lab's Terms of Service fallout, though still impressive.

Over time, the number of users in Jim's statistics show steady growth from July 2010 in which the Grid's total number of users was less than ten thousand to today with the total just shy of 90,000 and expected to reach 100,000 "before Easter 2014." There has been no great jump in registered users in the past couple months, though.

Where there *has* been a big jump recently is InWorldz's user concurrency. Numbers have overall made a slow climb in the past few years. But over the past few months, the number of residents in the Grid at any one time has gone from less than 300 to over 400. A rise of more than a third.

What this suggests is that while there are some people visiting InWorldz for the first time, since the ToS mess began, more people whom had already been to this Grid are returning.

It's also notable that in the past, land sales have gone through "summer peaks" where they rise, and "autumn lulls" in which they drop. This time the "lull" barely registered in the statistics, and sales climbed again, "that could be a sign of a large rise in the new year."

While InWorldz numbers remain small compared to Second Life, these statistics suggest it's been gowning while the larger Grid was just treading water. And after the ToS mess began, it's been much more active with more virtual land being bought than before.

*Addition* This month, Hypergrid Business listed InWorldz as having an active user population of over 8200.

Sources: Daniel Voyager, InWorldz blog 

Bixyl Shuftan