Second Life Wesbite Traffic Down Nearly 50% Since 2018, According to SimilarWeb, Likely Reflecting Strong Decline in New User Sign-Ups

Surprising stats from SimilarWeb, especially given recent Linden Lab reports that Second Life was enjoying a quarantine upsurge:

• This February, SecondLife.com earned 9.4 million visits, and in the five months prior to that, peaked at 12.7 million visits in December 2020, and averaged visits in the 11 million+ range in other months. 
• In December 2018, however, monthly visits to the site were nearly 21 million, and earned similar traffic numbers in the previous five months.
• As a more distant comparison point: In 2014, SecondLife.com was averaging monthly visits in the 16 million range.

Unlike other social virtual worlds, most of which have a mobile app and/or run on consoles and/or Steam, Second Life is still heavily dependent on its website for shopping, account management, community activity, and -- perhaps most notably -- new user sign-ups. So web traffic on the official site provides a pretty strong indicator of overall user activity, including new users.

This doesn't, however, necessarily mean in-world user activity is also down:

SimilarWeb stats for SecondLife.com from July-December 2018

SL concurrency, last I checked in October 2020, was trending slightly up from average. So instead, what we're likely seeing in the decline of web traffic is a slowdown in new user sign-ups that Tyche Shepherd reported that same month: 

"Trend in signups is down," as Tyche tells me... "There was a boost in late March-April but these have been declining since May and there is no significant change in September... Overall this implies that any growth in concurrency is more likely explained by more frequent usage by existing accounts (either lapsed returning or longer online times by active users or a combination of both) rather than new users."

Also the decline in registrations is part of a longer trend: "It also looks like signups have been significantly lower than last year," Tyche adds.

Another possible contributing factor: Back in 2018, Brazilian visitors accounted for an incredible 28% of total web traffic (even higher than the US), whereas this February, Brazil traffic had plummeted down to under 5%. Which definitely deserves more digging into.

In any case, the traffic trend isn't a positive sign, and hopefully encourages Linden Lab to make more updates to the new user experience.

Comments

[Nodoka Hanamura]

Onboarding, Viewer Performance and Quality of Life changes should be top priority. Not updates that only appeal to residents already invested in the platform for some time now.

It's absurd that Linden Lab hasn't realized that people don't just want Linden Homes but want a platform that runs well, is easy to learn how to use, and isn't a complete mess. They're failing at the last three, and it's unacceptable.

[Tankgirl]

Much easier to compete inside, with their own creators on offering houses and bars and what not, than actually doing their job competing with other platforms and selling SL to possible new residents. They are not working on the platform anymore, they are eating it up.

[Adeon Writer]

Why can’t you sign up using the viewer itself like every other game?

[Kei]

because the majority of users use 3rd party viewers. reasons vary as to why. but that said, it could be conflicting on LLs side when creating an account through a 3rd partys app.

[Tim]

None the less, SL is still the best virtual world, in my opinion. No other platform comes close to it - free version or paid.

I think it'll always be a niche platform - as long as the steep learning curve exists. But then again, what a bunch of truly fascinating creative users. You have to have large amounts of patience and determination (obsessiveness?) to enjoy this world. Once you've conquered that, it's quite addictive.

[Nodoka Hanamura]

@Tim

I couldn't agree more. You hit it nail on head, Tim. But I feel that helping make the learning curve easier while not dumbing down or removing features will help longevity while keeping what makes Second Life great around.

[Taylor]

I have no doubt that SL is doing worse than in 2018 user-wise but for what it's worth the Similarweb link shows it was back up over 11 million for March. It's possible their February estimate was just off.

[-Soda-]

Some of that drop may be lack of new users, but not all of it. When you think bout it, what reason does one have to go into the SL website? Much of the information they provide there is available elsewhere in better detail. The forum is an over-moderated poorly categorized nightmare. There is no land available. Bloggers and creators are doing much better than LL at providing resources. Even you have upped your game Wagner! Other than maybe to convert lindens, why would you need/want to go to the SL website?

[Mila]

What steep learning curve? If you're on your own you invest a few hours and you know your way around. Was easy as a 13 year old in 2006 and was easy to quickly relearn in 2021. Non of my friends who never where in SL had much of an issue after a short explanation. 10 minutes and we were good to go.

What really killed my group of 9 people to stay in SL is that we lagged and had more crashes than I had in 2006 on a literal trashcan PC. And we all had modern expensive PC in a 700-1000€ price range.
Seriously what is wrong with SL avatars that you crash the second you see avatar parts fly around? We weren't able to visit a SINGLE place with people in it!

Don't know why a modern PC in expensive enough price range for normal people can't run SL anymore. It seems SL became a platform for the rich and for people who have gaming as a number 1 priority in their life who throw out 3000€ for a PC anyway. Honestly after our experience I'm surprised that SL is still somewhat alive.

[Ravelli Ormstein]

The days of valid statistics about website traffic are over since a couple of years, since more privacy protection gets implemented to involved tools. Like 'do not track' features in browsers, new laws about privacy policies especially in Europe, use of anonymised log files and anonymising embedded third-party services, and now upcoming VPN hard-coded in web-browsers. Plus much more spam and hacking attempts, which often cause more traffic than human users.

The SL traffic statistics might be more valid, although there seems to be a new trend of those vampires RP systems, to generate tons of new accounts within a short time by using LUA controlled viewers, just to offer those armies of alts a bite and climb up in the vampire hierarchy.