Linden Lab Reports Second Life Has 1 Million+ Monthly Users (After Changing Their Definition of SL User)

Linden Lab is reporting that Second Life has over 1 million monthly active users in its Q2 2011 Second Life stats report, released last weekend. This might seem like a leap from the 800K monthly actives it was reporting from recent quarters. However, that is not the case: Rather, Linden Lab simply changed the definition of an active user -- previously, it was a monthly active returning login (or MURL), meaning a user who had logged into SL at least one previous time. Now, however, the Lindens are reporting all monthly logged in users - which would include the 16,000 new SL accounts created every day, i.e. 480,000 a month.

The reason for changing the metrics, as the report explains, is total monthly logins are "more comparable to industry standards for reporting size of customer base". This is true - for example, when you read about monthly active users of a Facebook game, the number includes all the people during that month who launched the app, even if they did so just once and never returned. At SLCC, I got a chance to talk with Colossus Linden, who compiled the report, about this change; he acknowledged that it does make it difficult to track SL activity over time, but argued it was more important to put SL in line with industry reporting methods. In any case, the new metric shows that absolute SL user growth is still flat, though several Lindens told me we may see signs of growth in the next quarterly report.

The only signs of growth from the Q2 2011 report? Web merchandise sales, which show a slow but continued increase. To me this is the most hopeful sign for SL's long term future, as the Lindens shift away from their doomed land-based revenue model. But it will still take many more actual users spending Linden Dollars, to replace it.

Comments

[Wizard Gynoid]

At SLCC I noticed @rodvik kept describing Secondlife growth with enthusiasm. One would expect the CEO to be a fanboy. He kept stressing the increase and demographics of the new signups. If there is in fact growth in signups and retainees (those who return) then it must be at the expense of oldbies who aren't logging on as much. Why? Because concurrency remains flat. Also there is no sim growth. In fact, I think the numbers are declining slowly.

[Jjccc]

hey since linden posted my video on the front page of there web site i get a 1000 hits a day which is cool can you post all my other videos on you front page to as i love going viral lol

[Hitomi Tiponi]

That has been an industry standard for quite some time - interesting that they only use it when new user logins are increasing i.e. it favours them. The number of real repeat users is flat at best, but with the announcements at SLCC I expect we will see real growth by the end of the year. Until then we will have to put up with the spin.

[Emma Geraln]

Interesting but it doesn't really matter. It's like when you're dieting, if you have a bad week you can start weighing in naked... but only once :)

[Wayfinder]

I'm sorry to see Linden Lab pulling more stunts like this. It appears to indicate that even with a new CEO, it's the same old business patterns. We've been watching for positive changes in SL since he came in office; thus far I haven't seen a one.

[Toysoldier Thor]

As I pointed out in great detail about EVERY chart/metric in the recent LL Q2 results (sent you the link via twitter - http://toytalks.weebly.com/1/post/2011/08/ll-q2-11-results-bad-hidden-news-with-sugar-on-top.html ) there is pretty much ZERO good news about this Q2 summery nor is much of the compiled data from Colossus of any meaning. I didnt know who was the author of this report that was the actual Spin Dr. You now have pointed out it was Colossus - that is not surprising at all considering some of his past ideas and works from the LL Commerce Team.

Your one thought that the SLM results are positive? If you read my post - even the SLM Marketplace results are not exactly positive news unless LL can provide stats to show how badly inworld sales have been sliding and migrated to SLM.

[Ajax Manatiso]

Its interesting that while LL has created rules against sim owners gaming traffic numbers(outlawing camping, bots, etc) they are gaming their traffic numbers unashamedly.

[Old user]

2nd life is in a downward spiral for quite some time now, even a year ago you could already feel and see the negative changes. SL commerce is now a faint shadow of what it used to be when SLExchange was still alive. Also when you check a profile of a new resident it usually sais the account was the nr200+ created on that day, check an older account up to 2010 and it sais that it was nr3000+ created on that day. LL has bad karma due to the persistent wrong directions they keep/kept heading to and their inability to know what the userbase wants and needs. Also the land prices are not justifiable anymore, you pay a LOT for a sim, yet it is running on light outdated servers that are not of this time and the general price range is out of touch with other RL products. For example, you could buy a kick a$$ quad core PC every other month for the money you spend on a sim. Land is simply overpriced. Combined with the declining user base it is almost impossible to make profit from a commercial sim these days.

I except SL to be officially dead within 2 years, perhaps even sooner with the 2nd economic crisis coming up.

[Woodie]

This report flies in the face of everything I'm seeing in SL, which is a steady decline. I disagree with the observation that sim prices are too high, it's tier fees that are too high. SL has grown in all the wrong directions. LL have added sims mindlessly without figuring out how a sim can operate faster and tolerate heavier traffic without loss of user experience. Not that it matters since 99% of sims are empty most of the time. SL is a virtual ghost world.

The only thing I'm aware of in SL is the number of alts growing like a virus becuase LL has made it harder for people on "free" accounts to earn Linden inworld. Basically, to enjoy anything at all in SL, given the crudeness of the basic avatar starter package, most people who want to take a serious stab at SL are creating literally dozens of accounts in order to earn Linden from free Linden sites. So the Linden reporting 50 "new" signups may be nothing more than 2 ppl creating 25 alts each. One player with 26 accts can login literally 200 times at a money sim as he/she shifts between avies to earn Linden. So these "hundreds" of logins would give the false impression that "hundreds" of users are frolicking around SL while it's just one person with 26 avies squeezing whatever he can from a money chair.

The horrible irony of SL is that the people who own this VR don't seem to understand the environment they own, nor its potential applications or uses... eventually someone will understand where VR is taking us... but it won't be LL, and it wont be SL.

I came into SL with high hopes... but after 2 yrs of finding mostly strip malls, "clubs," "Zingo" and sex sims I'm really left scratching my head..._this_ is virtual reality??? I think not.

[Woodie]

ps ~ on the aberrant spread of the alt phenomenon... look at Bloodlines... creating alts has grown into a virtual cottage industry for the vampires. Some vampire clans with "hundreds" of listed members are most often half a dozen people with literally hundreds of alts between them. LL doesnt need to cook the books to come up with bizarre figures. A smarter metric would simply be to count actual IP addresses. I would not be surprised to see a figure that is roughly 60~70% lower than they are reporting based on unique IP logins.

[Old user]

"I disagree with the observation that sim prices are too high, it's tier fees that are too high. "

Sorry that is what I mean (tier fees), however paying 1000 dollar setup fees is also absolutely insane as it takes like 10 minutes for an LL employe to set it up.

[Old user]

"I disagree with the observation that sim prices are too high, it's tier fees that are too high. "

Sorry that is what I mean (tier fees), however paying 1000 dollar setup fees is also absolutely insane as it takes like 10 minutes for an LL employe to set it up.

[Old user]

Ohh and a sim/region is really not that big! If you want to create a immersive environment including a sort of a horizon a single region is tiny, you need to work with offworld horizon then if your region does not have any neighbors. I have great plans for a sim based on Afghanistan, but that dream has been made impossible by LL due to the ridiculous high fees. "Your dream, your imagination" my ass LL.