Decline of Second Life median concurrency since January 2014, consistent with reported decline in monthly users (via Grid Survey)
Another notable revelation from the Xconomy interview with Linden Lab Ebbe Altberg:
“It’s still very popular and very successful, so we have no plans to discontinue it,” Altberg says. Second Life now hosts about 900,000 active users a month—a bit lower than its peak of about a million....
Linden Lab has reported having a million active users in Second Life since at least 2012, so a drop in 100,000 is pretty significant. Especially because historically, only 600,000 or so of those million actives are regular, returning users, with the rest new users who mostly churn out. (Multiple sources including Lindens, have told me 600K is a safe estimate for returning unique users, and it's consistent with the 400K new monthly registrations Linden Lab frequently reports.) It's possible that this is just a blip during the Summer (when usage tends to go down), but as you can see above, median concurreny rate has been steadily going down since about January 2014.
I've asked Linden Lab for more details on this slip in usage, because back in November 2014, the company was reporting a slight dip below one million:
GamesBeat: Have you talked about how many people are in Second Life right now?
Altberg: The monthly active user count is just south of a million. When it peaked it was just north of a million.
So usage has gone even more South since then. My guess is the drop is due to a combination of less new users trying SL, while regular users experiment with Oculus Rift, High Fidelity, and other new platforms.
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"So usage has gone even more South since then. My guess is the drop is due to a combination of less new users trying SL, while regular users experiment with Oculus Rift, High Fidelity, and other new platforms."
Or that LL have been blowing smoke for a while. Hardly surprising.
Posted by: Issa Heckroth | Monday, June 29, 2015 at 03:09 PM
Same happens with Open sim grids, less active users.
Posted by: zz bottom | Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 05:17 AM
Don't worry. Eggbert has his next high paying job already lined up.
CEOs with a record of failure and mediocrity always get work.
Posted by: joe | Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 02:08 PM
Opensim users are going up though more slowly in these summer months. SL users are going down. Everyone is waiting on Hi Fidelity but the alpha is so freaking alpha that it hurts. Opensim is the big game in town right now. The lure of all that land for pennies compared to the SL land rip off. Plus the people in opensim are fun pioneers which is a refreshing change from the constant complaining in SL.
Posted by: sams son | Monday, July 06, 2015 at 11:34 PM
SL users are moving to Opensim. Why is that so hard for you to figure out?
Posted by: sams son | Monday, July 06, 2015 at 11:38 PM
Over January to March WoW was losing 1 million subscribers per month...
Posted by: Nalates | Tuesday, July 07, 2015 at 10:27 AM
SL is allowing people to have as many alternate accounts as they want. I got a person to admit he had over 200 alts. SL has less actual people than reported. It got boring for me and it makes sense if you are talking to the same person day after day.
Posted by: rockbottom | Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 08:20 PM