Modest rebound in user hours, premium accounts
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Second Life users spent more hours online in September than in the previous month, reversing a decline in August’s usage, according to statistics released by Linden Lab on Monday.
September saw a three percent boost in usage for a total of 24 million hours. It was the slimmest positive growth since March 2005, reflecting an overall cooling in Second Life usage this year.
Linden Lab enrolled 454 new premium accounts in September, a gain of just over half a percent, for a total of 91,054. There are still fewer of the enhanced accounts, which enable users to own land in exchange for a monthly fee, than June’s peak of 94,607.
Second Life added 343,961 new registrations in September, to a total of 9.6 million. The 3.7 percent gain in sign-ups in the slowest monthly growth on record. The number of active Second Life users fell to 516,149, from 540,151 in August.
