Second Life growth cools, women outnumbered 3-to-1
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, June 13 (Reuters) - Women made up only 26 percent of the almost 1.2 million logins to Second Life in May, according to data released by Linden Lab, but the average female resident spends twice as much time in-world per month.
Overall growth in Second Life slowed for the fourth consecutive month. Total registrations increased by 15 percent last month to 6,860,473, down from a monthly growth rate of 38 percent in January. The monthly growth rate was the slowest in a year.
Growth in total resident hours, land size, and premium accounts all cooled slightly from the previous month.
Less than half of May’s 1.2 million logins are considered by Linden to be active users, spending more than 1 hour in-world during the month.
The United States continues to host the largest number of active users at 130,033, followed by Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. At 49 hours in-world per month, Americans also spend far more time in Second Life per capita than most other countries. Among nations with over 100 active users, only Canada and the Netherlands averaged over 50 hours in-world in May.
Almost 21 million hours were spent in Second Life in May, an increase of 15 percent over the previous month and almost double the time spent in January.
The amount of land in Second Life increased by 12 percent to over 650 regions, the slowest monthly growth on record. New islands are growing more quickly than the mainland, continuing a long-term trend.
Second Life had 89,845 premium accounts by the end of May, an increase of under 7,000 from the previous month — the slowest increase in absolute numbers since October of last year.
