The latest Second Life metrics and statistics are out from Meta Linden this month, covering both October and November (presumably due to the lateness of the data). September largely featured a recovery from the service problems of August.
Let's see how Second Life fared for October and November. Highlights after the fold.
Total signups increased by 973,873 (10.14%) in October and 605,095 (5.72%) in November compared to a growth of 343,961 (3.71%) in September. New-user retention to 90 days is still about 10% according to Linden Lab, having apparently remained more or less unchanged over the last 12 months.
Total premium accounts increased by 559 accounts in October (0.6%), and by 982 in November (1.07%), compared with 454 (0.5%) for September.
The three most active regions by time spent per user in November were Gabon, the Falkland Islands, and Brunei Darussalam. Overall, active users spent an average 45.06 hours in Second Life during the month of November, down slightly from 46.5 in September.
- Japan's 30,793 accounts spent an average 62 hours each online in November - well above average! By contrast Korea's 1,743 managed only 18.2 hours per account.
- The lowest usage per account was Colombia, whose 1,149 accounts only averaged 15.22 hours.
The Second Life map grew by 33.18 square kilometres (3.8%) in October, and 67.19 square kilometres (7.7%) in November, compared to 31.6 square kilometres (3.76%) in September. The total at the end of November was 939.11 square kilometres of simulated space, of which 20% is is Linden mainland, and the remaining 755.11 square kilometres are non-Linden estates.
September saw a major recovery from the sudden slump in Lindex sales in August. While July had shown nearly US$600,000 in sales, August's sales had dropped to US$163,239, but recovered in September to a much healthier $573,501. October saw a rise to US$657,855, and November fell to US$527,762.
Overall age demographics continue much as expected. 73% of the population for September were 25 years and older - a figure that continues stable month after month. The older you are, the more time you spend in Second Life: over-45's spent an average of 60.72 hours in November, 35-44 spent 54.44 hours, 25-34 spent 44.01 hours, and the 18-24's spent less than 30 hours. Teen grid residents spent the least time online per account.
Females spent nearly twice as long online in Second Life in November as the boys - another trend which continues steady each month.
Your Aunt Tilley is spending more time in Second Life than those tech-savvy young fellows.
Total user hours rose to an all-time high in October of 25,941,525 hours, but fell slightly to 24,625,902 - doubtless because of all the technical issues through that month.
