Did Second Life's Dr. Phil Appearance Help User Growth?

UPDATE, 7/24: Linden Lab's Peter Gray tells me, "We saw a modest bump in new registrations on the day it aired."

Second Life was featured on a Dr. Phil episode on game addiction last Tuesday, so I was curious what kind of effect it's had on new user growth. After all, the show draws about 5 million viewers on broadcast TV alone, and likely some millions more online.

Looking at publicly available Second Life usage numbers, however, I'm not seeing any evidence of new growth. Reviewing the last two weeks of concurrent users in Second Life, for example, there's no noticeable spike in usage after the show. (See image above.) That's unlike other media appearances in the past. When Second Life was featured in an episode of CSI, for example, new user sign-ups went through the fricking roof. And as like the CSI case, Linden Lab worked hand-in-hand with the producers of the show to present Second Life in a positive, exciting light -- in this case, creating a Dr. Phil avatar and even getting Linden Lab consultant Bernhard Drax (Draxtor Depres) and others to assemble great footage and locations to feature in the show. 

To be sure, there might be some spurt in sign-ups I'm not seeing on these charts, and I've asked Linden Lab about this. Assuming this was a media opportunity miss, however, what happened? 

 My first guess is context. This was a Dr. Phil episode focusing on a mother worried about her teen son's addictive behavior, and within that framework, Second Life would seem to the untrained eye as a game for teens -- when in fact, SL is much more popular with people in the mom's demographic. And so Dr. Phil's viewers, a majority of whom are moms, unconsciously put Second Life in the "things I have to worry my son is using" box -- as opposed to the "things where I can wear 6 inch stiletto heels in my 21 year old body again" fun-time happy slot.

Chart via Tateru's data.

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Comments

[Iggy]

Color me cynical, but I don't know that the Dr. Phil demographic is able to get off the sofa, let alone get past the first-hour experience in SL.

To be brutally honest, I not only know no one who watches Dr. Phil, adult or student, but I have not heard his name in a couple of years, until this story ran.

Linden Lab might get more traction from a story run by Walter Winchell. Dig him up and stick electrodes on him, then give him a mic. It can't hurt.

[Lindal Kidd]

My experience would indicate that there WAS some effect. I met several new avatars in the days following the Dr. Phil episode who told me that the show was the impetus that caused them to try SL.

[Canary Beck]

"To be sure, there might be some spurt in sign-ups I'm not seeing on these charts, and I've asked Linden Lab about this."

Here you go: http://canarybeck.com/2015/07/20/dr-phil-second-life-show-user-signups/

[Shockwave Yareach]

Right on Iggy. To be in SL you need to want to be inside and want to learn the controls. It requires smarts and determination.

To sit and watch dr Phil only requires a pulse

[A.J.]

I think all of the new people are still at The Shops in Style Mode... trying to figure out how to pay for something.