Second Life user concurrency 2012 spring update

The last post I made about the Second Life user concurrency was back in late November 2011 where the SL concurrency levels were below the 70, 000 mark during 2011. During 2012 the daily SL concurrency has mostly stayed the same like it was back in 2011 with peaks around the 66, 000 mark with lows of around 32, 000 at any given time during the week. So I think we are not going to see any increase during the next few quarters unless something the lab does something to get more users and remain inworld for longer etc. The mean and median peak concurrency seems to be around the 50, 000 mark currently.

I would like to see the Second Life user concurrency stay between 70, 000 and 75, 000+. The levels were higher in previous years but the user concurrency trend was flat in 2011 and now in 2012 so far.

Check out these graphs from the SL Grid Survey to see the comparison.

(Below) Maximum Daily Concurrency

(Below) Minimum Daily Concurrency

(Below) Seasonal SL concurrency

This month the total count of main grid regions dropped below the 30, 000 mark for the first time since January 2010.  Second Life signups have dropped below 20, 000 per day since the 4th quarter of 2011. It’s interesting that signups dropped alot during the new year with the odd peak now/then. I think RL holidays do effect the Second Life user concurrency & signups among other things. Something needs to be done to keep users logged inworld for longer. Perhaps more press conferences, big events and more mention of Second Life in the coming months will increase signups. Perhaps many are logging else where like on OpenSim instead of the main grid which may effect these SL user concurrency numbers.

My hope is that things will increase/change in the coming months for Second Life.

Next update will be in July/August 2012.

Main Grid regions drops below 30, 000

According to Tyche Shepherd New SL Sims in past week latest post on SLUniverse Forums it seems the main grid total count of regions has dropped below the 30, 000 mark. The last time it went below 30k was 31st January 2010 which was some time ago.

Today there are now 29, 997 main grid regions. Here is the graph of total main grid regions since 31st October 2006 showing alot of high peaks and lows. Click the graph to see the dates along the bottom and for a larger image.

Second Life Main Grid size as of 3 Apr 2012

Ownership	Total	General	Moderate	Adult	Offline	Total Area (km²)
Total	29997	4573	22030	3388	6	1965.88
Linden Owned	7122	1745	5023	353	1	466.75
Private Estates	22875	2828	17007	3035	5	1499.14

Latest Main Grid total regions graph

It’s not surprising to see this happen but if rates continue then it’s concerning for the future of Second Life. Hopefully during 2012 the region count will stay above the 30, 000 mark and not decline further down into the 20ks.

InWorldz reaches 50, 000 registered users milestone

InWorldz has now reached a big milestone hitting the 50, 000 total registered users mark. Congratulations to InWorldz and this is now another giant leap for InWorldz. This is really exciting and I believe there will be a 50k party to celebrate this amazing milestone.

50, 000 total users

1000 total users

InWorldz users milestones so far

• “The first 1, 000 took almost a year.. the second 1, 000 just a bit over a month..”
• 1, 000 members – 16th February 2010
• 2, 000 members – 14th May 2010 (growth chat)
• 5, 000 members - 20th June 2010
• 6, 000 members – 29th June 2010
• 7, 000 members - 4th July 2010
• 10, 000 members – 12th August 2010
• 20, 000 members – 21st October 2010
• 25, 000 members – 12th December 2010
• 30, 000 members – 1st February 2011
• 40, 000 members – 15th July 2011
• 50, 000 members – 15th January 2012
• 100, 000 members – Early 2014

Continue to watch the growth via the InWorldz Login website.

SL user concurrency stays below 70, 000 during 2011

Looking at the Grid Survey SL user concurrency graphs at various times during 2011 it seems like the SL user concurrency has remained mostly below the 70, 000 mark. The median and mean average in 2011 seems to be around 47, 000 to 51, 000. 2011 has not been the strongest year for SL user concurrency but it’s going to be interesting to see if 2012 SL user concurrency gets any better or no.

Lets look at the numbers and graphs from the Grid Survey from 2009 to 2011.

2011 started high around the 73, 000 mark then it dropped monthly until mid August 2011 where the user concurrency started to pick up again steadily. The maximum daily concurrency this month seems to be around 62, 000 to 67, 000.

I think the numbers have dropped this year more than any other year due to bots, camping and other factors.  It’s hard to tell what will happen during December but hopefully more residents will be using SL during the christmas period into the new year 2012.

The minimum daily user concurrency in 2011 shows averaging around the 32, 000 mark compared with higher figures in first part of 2010 due to bots etc.

Check out this interesting Trends & Seasonality graph!

• What are your views on SL user concurrency during 2011 ?
• Any user concurrency predictions for 2012 ? 

SL place closures autumn update 2011

My last report on SL place closures was published during July 2011 and I now want to update everyone on the latest since then. Check out New SL Sims in the past week for regions added and removed in Second Life published by Tyche Shepherd. It’s always sad to see places/regions closing down in Second Life but there’s always new places opening on the grid. Check out the Second Life Destination Guide.

Remaining active/online regions since last report

• Antiquity regions
• sLiterary, Shakespeare, Primtings & Skin City
• Numbakulla
• The Far Away, Dreamworld North
• Space Destiny
• Abbotts Aerodrome

Recent closures

• Help People Island
• Berries Inc
• Sweetest Goodbye
• The Minoan Empire

Upcoming closures 

• Rendervisions Isle/Art Door – 12th November 2011
• ElvenMyst - 23rd November 2011
• justB - 25th November 2011

(Update as of 8th November 2011)

Second Life user concurrency 2011 so far

So far in 2011 the Second Life user concurrency has been trending downwards and dropping mostly during the year so far. There has no major high peaks during 2011 which has been disappointing. Many would say it’s been declining/flat this year and to be fair it has been. Don’t forget to visit my SL Metrics page for more interesting statistics.

The Second Life daily median concurrency started well at the start of 2011 at around 56, 000 and now it appears to be hovering above 50, 000. The daily user concurrency average for August 2011 seems to be around 31, 000 to 65, 000 at peak. I wonder if things will pick up during the rest of 2011 or continue to decline further?.

User hours is another interesting area to focus on and again it shows a large drop in user hours in Second Life between Q1 2010 and Q2 2011. Check out this graph to see the user hours (millions).

• Q1 2010 – 116
• Q2 2010 – 109
• Q3 2010 – 105
• Q4 2010 – 105
• Q1 2011 – 104
• Q2 2011 – 103

Check out these updated graphs from the Grid Survey showing high, balanced and slipping stats.

• Maximum Daily Concurrency - Graph shows the max concurrency between the 5th December 2009 to 21st August 2011
• Median Daily Concurrency - Graph shows the median concurrency between the 5th December 2009 to 21st August 2011
• Mean Daily Concurrency - Graph shows the mean concurrency between the 5th December 2009 to 21st August 2011
• Minimum Daily Concurrency - Graph shows the min concurrency between the 5th December 2009 to 21st August 2011

In January 2009 there was a huge peak in Second Life user concurrency that reached the 80k milestone and then almost reached the 90k milestone in late March 2009. The 100k milestone I think won’t happen for a long time yet however that would be nice to see it reach that figure in the next few years.

• 88, 220 – 29th March 2009 at 1:28pm SLT
• 86, 584 – 15th March 2009 at 3:57pm SLT
• 81, 913 – 28th February 2009 at 2:50pm SLT
• 80,000 – 12th January 2009
• 80, 528 – 11th January 2009 at 2:46pm SLT
• 80, 195 – 11th January 2009

August 2011

• New Signups: 16, 000 (average per day)
• Stats released from SLCC 2011

April 2011

• Second Life user-concurrency falls to lowest levels in two years
• SL Population Crash Continues
• New Signups: Around 10, 000 – 11, 000

SL Economy, Q1 Metrics 2011

BK Linden published Q1 2011 SL Economy Metrics on 6th May 2011.  Overall not that great in growth terms for the start of 2011. I see that there was no metrics on the Second Life Marketplace performance which is a shame. Many areas of the SL economy showed decline during Q4 and this year it seems to be flat again during Q1.

Rodvik Linden published Improvements to Usability including recent developments on the new resident experience, viewer basic avatars, login screen and return of the Resident Help Network. I was hoping to see growth in usage hours, update on SL concurrency and for the SL Marketplace. It’s going to be interesting to find out what the Q2 2011 SL Economy metrics will be. Hopefully by then things have picked up and not another set of flat sl metrics.

Here’s the highlights of  Q1 2011 SL Economy Metrics

Efforts to improve operating focus and cost structure have resulted in two consecutive quarters of strong cash flow and profitability with Q1 2011 the most successful in Linden Lab’s history.

In Q1 2011, measures of the size and strength of the Second Life Linden Dollar economy improved slightly while users, usage and world size were consistent with the last few quarters.

Positive 

• There has been a positive trend since the new registration experience was introduced on April 11.
• The value of the Linden dollar has continued to improve from Q4 2010 and is at its highest level in the last 6 quarters.
• The US dollar value of Linden dollars held by Residents of Second Life has increased for the third consecutive quarter.
• In Q1 2011, the LindeX Volume was at its highest level in the last 6 quarters.

Staying the same

• Average monthly repeat logins have been virtually unchanged over the previous 3 quarters.

Flat

• Similarly, user hours have remained consistent over the last 3 quarters.
• World size has also stayed within a 1% range over the last 3 quarters.

3 Years Later, New SL Sims Past Week Survey

Tyche Shepherd reports that it’s now been 3 years since the first survey was released showing Second Life statistics. It’s a great job Tyche Shepherd is doing keeping everyone informed on the latest grid growth & decreases.

It’s now 3 years since my first survey during which time we’ve seen the grid grow and then shrink and slowly grow again now 78% larger than it was in March 2008, Over the three years most of the growth has been in Private estates which increased by 86% where Linden owned increased by 54%. Some how I’ve managed to keep up the weekly reporting schedule with only a handful of missed reports, so in keeping with tradition here is my Sunday report for this week

This week’s grid statistics – (7th-13th March 2011)

This week the grid had a net loss of 35 regions, Private estates dropped by 67 whilst Linden owned added 32 Nascera Linden Home regions

Total number of Main Grid regions is now 31488 ( 24674 private estates & 6814 Linden owned)
115 new regions were added and 15 returned to the grid, with 172 regions removed (29 were renamed and 2 came and went since last report)

Other than the 32 new Linden Home regions added to the 4th Nascera continent there were no significant additions to the Grid. Dreamland ACS dropped 42 regions with no detected increases in other ACS owned estates.

SL Economy, Q4 Metrics 2010

Nelson Linden published the Second Life Economy in Q4 2010 metrics yesterday on the Official Second Life Blog. Here are the stats for Q4 2010 for Second Life:

Stable & Growth

• Repeat logins gained 1% this quarter. Average monthly repeat logins in 2010 rose 8% over the 2009 average.
• Money supply grew significantly in Q4 to US$28.4m worth of L$, 8% over Q3. The year end money supply in 2010 was 11.9% over 2009.
• Mirroring money supply growth, volume on the LindeX grew 8% in Q4, nearing the top end of the historical five-quarter range. Total LindeX volume in 2010 was nearly US$119m, 2.8% over 2009. This means that an additional US$4m traded hands on the LindeX in 2010
• Driven by greater merchant adoption and improved shopping features, web merchandise sales volume grew 5.8% in Q4. 2010 web sales volume was up 104% relative to 2009.
• World size remained flat in Q4; 2010 year end world size was up 5.8% relative to 2009. Today, Second Life’s virtual land mass would be roughly twice the size of Hong Kong.

Declined

• User hours were flat this quarter, appearing to stabilize after a gradual decline in the prior four quarters. Total user hours in 2010 fell 10%  from 2009.
• Economic participants were flat in Q4, remaining in the historical five-quarter range. Year over year, the 2010 average of monthly economic participants was up 4% from 2009’s average.
• Increasing demand and falling supply on the LindeX caused a 3.7% appreciation in the value of the L$ in Q4.* The average L$ value in 2010 was within 1% of the average value in 2009.

When looking through the SL Blog post comments it looks like the introduction of Viewer 2 last February is to blame for the decline in user hours, economic participants and LindeX etc during 2010. Looking forward it’s going to be interesting to see what Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 economy metrics will be like during 2011. Hopefully with the new Linden Lab CEO Rodvik Linden now in charge the economy will start picking up again and show more positive growth in all areas.

Check out my SL Metrics page for previous SL economy statistics and more.

Latest New SL Sims Statistics

Tyche Shepherd does a amazing job each week gathering region statistics and sharing the statistics publicly on the New SL Sims in past week post on SLUniverse Forums. The New SL Sims post includes the latest sim arrivals, sim departures, returning sims and even SL quarterly economy metrics. Tyche Shepherd runs the region database at Second Life Grid Survey, which displays a number of interesting SL metrics on a daily basis too.

Tyche Shepherd started the service on 23rd March 2008 and back then there were 17, 709 publically visible Main Grid sims. Today’s number of Main Grid regions has increased to 31, 596, ( 24815 private estates & 6781 Linden owned), as of 4pm SLT. The Main Grid saw a new arrival of 215 Teen Grid regions (111 Private Estate and 104 Linden owned), coming online due to the merger on Friday 21st January 2011.

It’s really interesting statistics I think and I recommend you check out the links for the latest SL grid metrics to stay updated.

Q2 2010 SL Metrics Published

After a long wait Linden Lab has finally published Second Life Q2 Metrics today. Linden Lab will be “phasing out the data feeds” because  “this data currently bears little relationship to the health or strength of the Second Life economy, we feel it’s appropriate to discontinue these feeds“.

Recap of the SL Q2 2010 stats:

• In Q2 2010, Resident-to-Resident transactions totalled approximately L$40 billion, or US$152 million.
• Q2 2010 averaged 805 million monthly repeat logins, a rise of 8.6 percent vs. the Q2 2009 average of 742 million.
• The Q2 2009 User Hours figure of 126 million includes substantial usage attributable to “bots” and other scripted agents.
• The average Linden dollar exchange rate moved from approximately L$261 per US dollar at the beginning of the quarter, to just under L$269 per US$ at the end and fluctuated across a larger range for two weeks during June
• L$ Supply in Q2 was US$78.2 million vs US$77.9 in Q1
• LindeX trading volume of US$29.4 million in Q2 2010 was up slightly against the year-ago Q2 volume of US$29.1 million, but off from Q1’s US$30.7 million
• Q2 2010 saw 39% growth in sales over Q1 2010 and 124% growth over the same quarter a year earlier.
• World Size grew to 2,110 square kilometers at the end of Q2, from 2,070 at the end of the previous quarter, and 1,900 for the year-ago period.

Over the past few years or so I have been searching for SL Metrics/Stats and made a page dedicated for SL Metrics. Check it out and view previous SL metrics and links. What are your views on Q2 SL Metrics?