Second Life & OpenSim Statistics – March 2016

Data from the Second Life Grid Survey

My last statistics blog post on Second Life was published on 4th January 2016 where I reported that Second Life regions shrunk during the course of 2015 and I mentioned that this year will be a challenging year. Since January 2016 the grid has lost more regions in Second Life and the trend seems to be continuing with a few hundred regions going offline every 2-3 months.

Some good news is that Linden Owned regions have increased slightly already during the first three months of 2016. Tyche Shepherd mentions in the latest weekly grid report that “the Lab brought online 19 Development regions way of to the North West of the grid all closed to the public – The region names indicate they are part of something called the HE Project“.

On 3rd January 2016

• Total number of Main Grid regions: 24, 886
• Private Estates: 17, 775 
• Linden Owned: 7, 111

As of 6th March 2016

• Total number of Main Grid regions: 24, 693
• Private Estates: 17, 568 > YTD Private Estate Net Loss: 207 regions (1.2% down) 
• Linden Owned: 7, 125

The highest amount of Main Grid regions was recorded on 13th June 2010 with 31,988 regions in Second Life. Today there are 24, 693 Main Grid regions and if you are interested then you follow the weekly grid numbers here.  

OpenSim

Last month it was reported by Hypergrid Business that OpenSim traffic was up, land area drops which is surprising news to hear after a surge over recent years.

As of February 2016

• “The total land area of the public OpenSim grids fell by 16,771 region equivalents”
• “OpenSim now has 54,786 standard region equivalents and a record high of 513,398 registered users.”
• OSGrid, Kitely, Metropolis and Lost Paradise have the most regions on OpenSim.
• InWorldz, OSGrid, Metropolis and the Great Canadian Grid have the most active users.

Data from Hypergrid Business

My next stats post will be published in early June 2016 – (every 3 months hopefully).

Press Release: Linden Lab announces that Blocksworld expands to iPhone & offers real money redemptions to creators

On 3rd March 2016 Linden Lab released a new press release announcing that Blocksworld has expanded to iPhone along with new offers using real money redemptions to creators. For those that use Blocksworld this is very good news because now there is an iPhone version to use. The lab will now be offering redemptions to eligible creators that use Blocksworld.

Apparently Blocksworld players have published more than 2.7 million creations along with more than 700, 000 player created models that are for sale in the marketplace. Soon Blocksworld creations will be available on the web which is worth mentioning.

About Blocksworld

“Blocksworld makes building games as easy as stacking blocks! Create dinosaurs, helicopters, alien spaceships and giant tarantulas. Design tanks made out of cheese and monsters made from trees. Make satellites and semis, cats, robots and robot cats – and then add behaviors and actions to bring your creations to life!”

See the full press release below!

2016-03-03

SAN FRANCISCO – March 3, 2016 – Linden Lab®, the creators of Second Life® and Project Sansar™, today announced two significant milestones for Blocksworld®, the popular free build-and-play app for iPad: real money redemptions for eligible creators and an iPhone version.

Blocksworld makes it fun and easy for kids and adults to create unique 3D models, playable games, and interactive worlds using virtual blocks and drag-and-drop controls. Players can publish their creations for others around the world to enjoy, and they can sell the models they build in an in-app marketplace for Blocksworld coins. To date, Blocksworld players have published more than 2.7 million creations, and more than 700,000 player-created models are currently for sale in the marketplace.

The Blocksworld coins that creators earn can be used to purchase additional content within the app, including themed building sets and models. Now, eligible Blocksworld creators will also be able to redeem Blocksworld coins for real money.

“We believe people should be able to profit from their virtual creations, and we have a history of successfully enabling this,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “We’ve allowed redemptions with Second Life for many years, and last year alone, creators redeemed $60 million from the virtual economy. Blocksworld players have shown an incredible level of creativity, and we’re pleased to be able to reward that by now offering redemptions to eligible creators.”

Additionally, Blocksworld is now available for iPhone as well as iPad. Players will enjoy the same functionality on either platform, and in the near future, Blocksworld creations will also be playable on the Web. These expansions will make it even easier for players to share their favorite Blocksworld worlds for others to enjoy and will allow creators to reach even larger audiences.

About Linden Lab

Founded in 1999, Linden Lab is best known as the creator of Second Life®, the largest-ever 3D virtual world filled entirely by the creations of its users. In 2013, the company expanded its product portfolio with Blocksworld®, a lighthearted build-and-play system for kids and grownups alike. The company is currently developing a new platform for virtual experiences, code-named Project Sansar™, which will democratize VR as a creative medium.

For more about Linden Lab, its products, and career opportunities please visit LindenLab.com.

 

Linden Lab announces faster credit processing and changes to the fee structure

On 7th March Linden Lab announced faster credit processing and changes to the fee structure. It’s good to hear that the lab have improved speed of credit processing and I’m sure this announcement will be most welcome news for the community. Read the full announcement, click here.

New Updates

• 75% of process credit requests to be completed within 2 business days.
• For a minority of requests, the process may still take 5 business days.
• As of April 5, 2016, instead of charging a flat fee of $1 (USD) per transaction, we will charge a fee of 1.5% of the transaction value, with a minimum fee of $3 (USD) and a maximum of $15 (USD). Additionally, the fee for purchasing L$ on the LindeX will increase 10¢, from $0.30 (USD) to $0.40 (USD) per transaction.

Faster Credit Processing

We’re happy to announce that we will significantly improve how quickly we’re able to process a majority of credit requests.

Based on current data, we estimate that the upgrades we’ve made will allow approximately 75% of process credit requests to be completed within 2 business days.

For a minority of requests, the process may still take 5 business days. Because we’re dealing with sending real money to users around the world, we may require additional information and perform other processes that could impact the time needed. A good rule of thumb is that the better we know you as a customer, the more likely it is we’ll be able to quickly process your credit requests.

Upcoming Changes to Fees

In addition to taking time, processing credit and paying real money to users’ PayPal and Skrill accounts incurs costs to Linden Lab. Each transaction actually costs us more than the $1 (USD) fee we have been charging. To address that and in light of the significant investments we’ve made to improve the related systems and processes, we will be making some adjustments to the fee structure, beginning next month.

As of April 5, 2016, instead of charging a flat fee of $1 (USD) per transaction, we will charge a fee of 1.5% of the transaction value, with a minimum fee of $3 (USD) and a maximum of $15 (USD). Additionally, the fee for purchasing L$ on the LindeX will increase 10¢, from $0.30 (USD) to $0.40 (USD) per transaction.

We hope that you’ll enjoy the improved speed of credit processing and understand that these upcoming fee updates help to support the complex work involved in enabling Second Life users to buy and sell Linden Dollars for real money at a massive scale, all while keeping the system reliable, safe, compliant with regulations – and now faster.