Key Second Life metrics for February
The latest Second Life metrics and statistics are out from Linden Lab, covering to the end of February 2008. Actually they've apparently been out for a while, but without a specific announcement this time (presumably due to Meta Linden's vacation).
Let's see how Second Life fared for February. Highlights after the fold.
Total signups increased by 431477 (3.52%) compared to a growth of 535,227 (4.57%) in January. We presume that new-user retention to 90 days is still about 10% according to Linden Lab, pending any new information from Linden Lab.
Total premium accounts declined by 565 (0.61%) in February compared to a decline of 1,123 accounts in January. This is the second consecutive month of decline for premium accounts, though the decline is very slight.
The three most active regions by average time spent per active user in February were the Russian Federation (80.92 hours), Japan (72.19 hours), and the Netherlands (67.74 hours). Overall, 526,915 users spent an average of 53.69 hours each in Second Life during the month of February, up from 51.78 in January.
The Second Life map grew by 36.26 square kilometres (3.61%) in February compared to 39.05 square kilometres (4.05%) in January. The total at the end of February was 1,038.97 square kilometres of simulated space, of which 17.9% is Linden mainland and the remaining 851.97 square kilometres are non-Linden estates.
The amount of resident owned mainland increased by 4.08 square kilometres in February, and private estates by 32.18 square kilometres.
February's Lindex activity was US$8,446,997, up 2.6% from the previous month's US$8,231,371.95.
Overall age demographics continue to trend towards us crusty oldies. 75.22% of the population is 25 years and older (a decline from January but still very top-heavy), and the older users spend far more time in Second Life than younger users with those over 44 years old continuing to be the heaviest users on average, and teens and under-25's spending the least time.
Users over 35 years old, are more active than the average. Users below that age, spend below average amounts of time in Second Life.
Females spent nearly twice as long online in Second Life in February as the boys - another trend which continues steady each month. In short, the average active Second Life user is most likely to be your mother (so to speak).
Total user hours for February totaled a record 28,407,684 hours, beating the previous January record by 0.47%. Remember, though, that February was a shorter month. Essentially daily user hours for February were 67,495 (7.4%) higher than January, which is quite an increase.
