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.
Daniel Voyager 
You write “As you can see there was a large peak in regions in 2008”. I don’t know about everyone, but for me the dates on the horizontal axis are so close together that I can’t make them out.
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Thanks Bert. If you click the graph it will open up larger to see the dates on the horizontal axis.
* Late 2006 to early 2007 – big growth in regions
* 2007 grid continues to grow until mid 2008
* 2009 there’s alot of ups and downs in the region count
* 2010 to 2011 stays about normal
* 2012 region count starts high then drops in April
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My prediction, If im not alone with my interest in breedables on the grid; ppl have to get more land to keep all animals. They are too cute to kill :O) Especially the wonderful ABC horses i just found. I need more land! :))
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Thanks for your comment
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Wow. We got rig of the camping bot to replace them with NPCs and frakking prim livestock?
Well, that will certainly bring a lot of people in-world.
“Hey come check out Second Life with me! You can watch the sheep breed!”
Spare me.
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Thanks
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Now if i told you that soon Open sims will have breedables:)
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Are you saying that you expect this to tip the scales in favor of Open sims?
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I think opensim will if catch up with the main grid regions count. Again many are leaving SL for opensim.
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Hmm.
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As long as there no physics in open sim and no mainland with roads and protected water….Im not sure. If they get breedables maybee, but Iv seen some breedable horses in another grid and I wouldnt pay for them im afraid. The looks and other features are important too 🙂 Not everyone enjoys to just build houses and gardens and jump on poseballs together :O)
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Good point there.
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The number of sims rose until the OpenSpace/Homestead fiasco, in which LL suddenly jacked up the rates of those sims 66%(http://15timez.blogspot.com/2008/10/protests-heat-up-grid.html). Numbers plummeted due to people unable to affoard the new tiers and those leaving because they felt the Lab was pulling a “bait and switch.”
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I know and its a shame sims rose in costs years ago.
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Interesting pattern.
See http://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/7077763961/in/photostream and http://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/6931685718/in/photostream/
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