New World Notes

Roblox Daily Active Users Grow 20% from 2021 -- Average DAU Now 65M

Roblox just sent me some key data from Q4 2022 for the metaverse platform:

58.8 million average daily active users in Q4 2022.

Year-over-year growth in DAUs: Europe up 24%, APAC up 21%, and US/Canada up 19%. 

Year-over-year growth across all age groups. Highest growth reportedly among users 17-24 year olds, "who comprise 31% who accounted for 22% of all DAUs in the quarter."

In other words, overall growth in daily active Roblox users in key regions is now up over 20% from 2021. That's quite decent. Also, average DAU last month (according to this summary on the Roblox site) is 65 million.

As I just wrote, rumors of the Metaverse's death are greatly exaggerated.

There's also growth among adult-age users, which remains Roblox's crucial challenge -- or what I call "the Metaverse Age Cliff":

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Faye Nightshade's Darkly Dramatic Travel Photos

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Faye Nightshade’s “Travel Journal | Winterstorm” is a fabulous picture full of energy and deeply situated in the place she is shooting. There are leading lines with the trees following the river. The dynamic movement of the boat is shown by its wake in the turbulent river and the camera becomes part of the scene thanks to the water on the lens. It’s just fantastic. 

For more fabulous travel pics, click here:

Here's Why Metaverse Hype Shrinks -- While Actual Metaverse Usage Grows

Above: From my January compilation of 800+ metaverse job openings

Mitch Wagner has a good article on Fierce Electronics that helps separate metaverse hype from metaverse reality, and naturally I have much to say on that topic:

So the metaverse is dead, right? Wrong. The hype bubble has collapsed. But the metaverse is growing.

“Metaverse platforms are growing slowly but steadily, and hiring commensurately,” says Wagner James Au...  Metaverse platforms grew by 15 million users year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023, to 520 million monthly active users (MAUs), according to a report from the analyst firm Metaversed. That includes 149 platforms either live or in development, mostly browser- based but with some using virtual reality VR goggles.

And that’s just the prominent platforms with strong usage in the US and Europe, Au notes. It doesn’t include mobile-based Garena Free Fire, mostly played in Southeast Asia and South America, and enjoyed by about 10% of the population of the whole planet—700 million quarterly active users.

520 million MAU is a conservative estimate, by the way, even without including Free Fire and other non-localized platforms. For my upcoming book, I count well over 550 million MAU.

Ironically enough, what we're seeing now is a mirror image of what occurred in 2008-2010, after a couple years of media hype promoting Second Life as the next big Internet platform:

Top 3 Posts Including New ZEPETO Data & a Unity Viewer for Second Life

• BREAKING: First Test Viewer Of Crystal Frost, Unity-Based Second Life Viewer, Available For Patreon Members Starting March 3!
• ZEPETO User Numbers & Demographics -- Plus Why It's Called "ZEPETO"
• These Incredibly Moody & Realistic Apartment Photos Are Actually From A Second Life Skybox Using Custom EEP Settings

Short Stories & Machinima from Second Life Created by Huckleberry Hax

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

What the Huck? Is very different from other Second Life blogs. You won’t go there for the latest fashions or previews of fairs and expos. Instead it is full of stories. Huckleberry Hax is a writer, filmmaker, and podcaster making full use of Second Life’s creative materials to fulfill his creative impulses. One of the more irresistible elements of his blog are his Dining Club Mysteries narrated by him. The most recent mystery is "The Leaked Secret" (listen above). He has collected his stories into a book which you can purchase.  

For more innovative blog material, click here:

BREAKING: First Test Viewer of Crystal Frost, Unity-Based Second Life Viewer, Available for Patreon Members Starting March 3!

Above: Improved water physics and in-world chat

It's finally here: Next week Friday (March 3), people will get their first chance to try out Crystal Frost, the upcoming Second Life viewer that runs on Unity 3D. To be among the very first, become a "Jacked In" or "Snowcrashed" level member of the project's Patreon here.

After I wrote about it last week, Crystal Frost developer Berry Bunny (Kallisti#2038 on Discord) has added a number of enhancements that will be available in this test build:

"Being able to send chat, click objects, and display and respond to IMs."

Yes, she means IM and chat through Crystal Frost on the main grid.

"I'll try but don't think I'll have group chats ready. Also I have the display of adjacent sims turned off at this time. Crystal Frost is receiving data from other sims but currently discarding it until I figure out how I want to organize it. Sim border crossings are likewise untested. So patrons should only cross sim boundaries at their own risk."

And yes, it's very much an early test build: "It won't be anywhere near finished," as Ms. Bunny puts it but it'll give people something to make YouTube videos showing."

This is not just a "port" to Unity, because Crystal Frost actually includes enhancements to the existing Second Life experience, including what you see in this video below:

ZEPETO User Numbers & Demographics -- Plus Why It's Called "ZEPETO"

Courtesy the team at Naver, the South Korean company behind ZEPETO, here's some recent user numbers for the mobile metaverse platform that I compiled for my upcoming book:

• Monthly active users: 15M - 20M.
• User-created items sold on the platform daily: 1.5 million.
• Top markets by usage: China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, USA, France, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Vietnam. "60% of our users are in Asia, 15% Americas, 15% Europe, and 9% MENA."

I'm also grateful for getting a (very unexpected) answer to a question that's been on my mind for over two years: Why even call this thing "ZEPETO"?

Cajsa's Choices: Beautiful Black & White Avatar Portraits from Tess V

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Tess V shoots magnificent photos for her Flickr microblog. And by the title of this picture, we should send her belated birthday wishes. What I love about her pictures is her sharp black and white style and her thoughtful and brilliant use of bento in positioning her hands. It reminds me of the iconic picture of Greta Garbo taken by Clarence Sinclair Bull, I believe.

For more great black and whites, click here:

These Incredibly Moody & Realistic Apartment Photos Are Actually from a Second Life Skybox Using Custom EEP Settings

Update: Marketplace listing and description for EEP settings has been updated below!

Elie recently posted gorgeously grungy photos like these to his Twitter and the lighting was so moodily perfect, I first thought they might be photos from his real life apartment.

But no, this is his skybox in Second Life, shot with Firestorm and some of his custom-made EEP and WindLights:

Cajsa's Choices: This SL Photographer's Intriguing Travelogue Pics Always Feature Her Avatar In the Middle Distance

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Nekonuko Nakamori’s stream is an extraordinary demonstration of the power of discipline and thematic consistency. Almost every picture is a landscape with her avatar in the middle distance. She is observing herself in the act of observing, the literal definition of meta. There are many other Second Life residents who take pictures of themselves while they travel from one beautiful place to another, yet somehow her pictures are the ones that capture my heart. There is something profoundly humane about her practice. Her pictures are filled with warmth and welcome and I absolutely love them.

For more, click here: