Now that Linden Lab's Sansar is on Steam as of last week, we can track concurrent users of the social VR platform, and compare it against other social VR products. (See screengrab via SteamDB.) So far, the usage is pretty negligible, with daily concurrency rates between 45 and 75. Add that to the 15-25 peak concurrency of people already using Sansar, and maximum daily usage is about 100, with roughly (by my generous estimate) about 200-500 total daily users. Then again, that means Sansar is more popular on Steam than High Fidelity, or Microsoft's Altspace VR.
On the other end of the spectrum, VRChat remains the current generation's leader, with peak daily concurrency in the high four figures. Then again, that's far off from VRChat's peak of 20,000 concurrent users last December, Whatever VR headset owners are doing with their rigs (more on that later), most of them are not using their equipment to socialize.
The STEAM version of Sansar is still not Mac compatible. If LL wants people to waltz into Sansar and start making content, they need a Mac client plain and simple. Just as PC's in the hands of most users are game or viewing machines, Macs in the hands of many users are creation engines. There are exceptions of course, but it would be interesting to know what percentage of content creators in SL were on Mac or PC and what percentage of non-content creating residents were on either platform. It seems like someone at LL Marketing would have already done that math!
Posted by: DanCoyote | Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 02:02 PM
This is pessimistic but Ebbe's blowing a lot of money on big collaborations and integrations (Intel, NASA, Ready Player One, high-profile Twitch Streamers, Fnatic, OpTic, Marvelous Designer...), and has neutered everything people love about Second Life from Sansar just to get it on Steam. The strategy to make an anti-Second Life isn't working.
If Steam isn't Ebbe's last ditch effort, what is? What's next? When is he out and a new CEO in? A Linden Lab CEO usually only lasts 2-4 years after blowing so much publicity and money. Ebbe's near year four and rivaling Rod with a string of excited press releases amounting in nothing.
Linden Lab's investors need to create a new company to chase the 1 billion user mega success that they want. Linden Lab is better off focusing entirely on Second Life customers. Sansar should be built for Second Life users, not Steam users.
Posted by: seph | Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 02:19 PM
Those 200 sign ups are just LL plants anyway. Ski school starting up though.
Posted by: shamus | Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 04:38 PM
They faced a market with about 100 million users and got only a few hundred new users. Perhaps not even really new users, just a few hundred people that gave a try to the "new" "game" and... the trend looks already downward. The last 24 hours peak is 37 now, according to Steamchart. The actual number may be different, but it still shows the trend, lower and lower each day.
Sansar reviews are "mixed" now (even if LL sent an email to their previous users telling "Leave us a review on Steam"). For comparison, recent VRChat reviews are "Overwhelmingly Positive (4,630)" and all reviews "Very Positive (24,781)".
Sansar just landed on Steam, maybe it will be better later... right, it's the same thing you heard for about a year and an half. This time is a sort of relaunch - and on Steam - but the formula is basically the same and the small niche already filled by VRChat, mostly. Well, good luck.
Posted by: Pulsar | Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 05:16 PM
Sansar sucks, looks like the Ogre engine from the year 2002.
Posted by: Gamer Bro 4 | Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 07:36 AM
संसार • (sansār) m (Urdu spelling سنسار) world; mortal world Wikitionary
sansar in British (ˈsɑːnzɑː) noun an icy Iranian wind. Collins English Dictionary
I was looking to find if there was any relationship between the choice of the name " Sansar" and 'WordPress for social VR'. I'm not getting it.
I did find "rahasya" which can mean "mystery or secret doctrine" in the Sanskrit Dictionary. I think LL should change the name of Sansar to Rahasya. Maybe they could market it as a mysterious money-sucking thing where the goal is to figure out what it is. I think they might have an easier time terminating the project, if someone could verify that it really isn't alive.
Posted by: Clara Seller | Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 12:34 PM