Public OpenSim grids gained the equivalent of 1,257 regions this month, while the number of active users rose by 511, after falling for the past three months in a row.

Great Canadian Grid, InWorldz and The Adult Grid did not provide full data this data, as was the case the previous month.

OpenSim land area now totals 74,244 standard region equivalents, with 98 percent of that on the hypergrid, meaning that users can teleport to other grids to shop or visit friends without creating new accounts.

OSGrid was the largest gainer in OpenSim land area with a gain of 1,421 regions, followed by Virtual Worlds Grid with 429 regions and Kitely with 339 regions. This was able to offset the losses by Metropolis which lost 213 regions, DigiWorldz that lost 206 regions, Genesis Metaverse that lost 130 regions and Adventure Bay that lost 102 regions.

Land area of OpenSim’s public grids, in standard region equivalents. (Hypergrid Business data.)

OpenSim is a free, open source virtual world platform that’s compatible with the Oculus Rift. It allows people with no technical skills to quickly and cheaply create virtual worlds, and then teleport to other virtual worlds. Those with technical skills can run OpenSim worlds on their own servers for free, while commercial hosting starts at less than $5 a region — compared to $300 a region for the same land in Second Life.

A list of hosting providers is here. Download the recommended Firestorm viewer here. And find out where to get content for your OpenSim world or region here.

Popularity

When it comes to general-purpose social grids, especially closed grids, the rule of thumb is: the busier, the better. People looking to make new friends look for grids that already have the most users. Merchants looking to sell content will go to the grids with the most potential customers. Event organizers looking for the biggest audience… you get the idea.

Kroatan Grid gained the most active users this month with 430, followed by Eureka World — which lost 245 active users  last month — at 369 users, and OpenSim Life gained 217 active users. Metropolis, Islands of Enlightenment, Dorena’s World, AllCity and 2Open each added more than 100 active users.

Virtual ABDL Grid, which suffered an outage last month and so missed in the list, lost the most active users at 367, followed by OSgrid at 183 and Genesis MetaVerse lost 153 active users.

Top 25 most popular grids this month:

  1. Metropolis: 3,527 active users (HG hypergrid.org:8002)
  2. OSgrid: 3,514 active users (HG hg.osgrid.org:80)
  3. AllCity: 1,722 active users (HG login.allcity.com.br:8002)
  4. DigiWorldz: 1,449 active users (HG login.digiworldz.com:8002)
  5. Island Oasis: 1,360 active users (HG islandoasisgrid.biz:8002:island Oasis)
  6. Kitely: 1,124 active users (HG grid.kitely.com:8002)
  7. Lost Paradise: 1,014 active users (HG lpgrid.com:8002)
  8. Eureka World: 965 active users (HG 54.77.238.20:9000)
  9. Craft World: 905 active users (HG craft-world.org:8002)
  10. Genesis MetaVerse: 869 active users (HG grid.genesismetaverse.com:8002)
  11. Virtual-EPI: 654 active users (HG 209.126.208.163:9024:virtual event planners int)
  12. Exo-Life: 654 active users (HG hg.exo-life.onl:8032)
  13. OpenSim Life: 646 active users (HG http://opensim.life/stats.php)
  14. DreamNation: 623 active users
  15. YrGrid: 489 active users (HG grid.yrgrid.com:8002)
  16. Logicamp: 460 active users (HG logicamp.org:8002)
  17. FrancoGrid: 411 active users (HG hg.francogrid.org:80)
  18. ZanGrid: 362 active users (HG login.zangrid.ch:8002)
  19. Dynamic Worldz: 338 active users (HG grid.dynamicworldz.com:8002)
  20. 3rd Rock Grid: 335 active users (HG grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002)
  21. Nextlife World: 327 active users (HG nextlife-world.de:8002)
  22. Dorena’s World: 318 active users (HG dorenas-world.de:8002)
  23. Neverworld: 311 active users (HG hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002)
  24. Anettes Welt: 274 active users (HG anettes-welt.de:8002)
  25. Islands of Enlightenment: 270 active users

Kitely

The Kitely Market now delivers to a total of 194 OpenSim grids. There are currently 9,803 product listings in the market containing 18,704 product variations, of which 13,960 are exportable.

Growth in exportable and non-exportable content on the Kitely Market. (Kitely data.)

Gloebits

Gloebits had a great month with an 80 percent increase in transaction volume compared to last month’s data while the number of users went up by 31 percent.

Gloebits transactions and user account figures. (Gloebits Data.)

Gloebits has also released new money module module files that can be downloaded from their dev site here. These files contain two updates, namely no purchase messages that a user would get upon every new session on a Gloebit app and a bug fix involving errors in purchasing land, a problem discovered in one grid. These two problems have now been solved, Gloebits CEO Christopher Colosi told Hypergrid Business.

“We asked the community and had pretty uniform response that our chat message to inform them that Gloebit was enabled was good and our internal messaging system with our auth url was useful, but that receiving the purchase internal message every time they logged in after they had authorized was annoying,” he said.

Gloebits has also added the text to the chat message sent to clients upon a new session which tells them that they can click their balance in the viewer to get the link to where they can purchase Gloebits. Many Gloebits partners are also providing messaging on their regions.

VirTec

VirTec and DigiWorldz are yet to complete the transfer of ownership of the VirTec vending machines, but the network attracted a total revenue of the equivalent of US $511, with 238 merchants and 1,087 transactions. Last month, it had $538 in dollar revenue from 58 merchants.

Merchant and Revenue data at VirTec network (VirTec data.)

InWorldz was the biggest customer this month at $255 in total transactions, followed by DigiWorldz at $105 and Genesis Metaverse at $60. The other grids saw total transactions of less than $50.

Sinful Grid is folding

Sinful grid is folding at the end of the month, though temporarily, and is planning to come back with a new name, revamp, business plan, and will be under DigiWorldz hosting, grid CEO and founder Tony Moore told Hypergrid Business.

“The three owners Tony More, Destiny Moore and XxX Colman have decided to shut down Sinful, take a step back and come up with a new business plan, and get a fresh start under a new name and stay strictly with Digiworldz Hosting,” she said. ” The new name will be announced at a later date, once we have a chance to clear our heads and re-brand the grid.”

The grid opened about a year ago under Avi-Labs hosting but will reopen under DigiWorldz hosting.

Users are requested to transfer any cash or cash out any money through Podex and save any items as soon as possible.

“We also have been in contact with Terry from Digiworldz Hosting,” she said. “We are working with him to keep backup files of all the members, assets, etc. so that when we reopen we can reload the assets this way no member will lose any of the their inventory in case they do not get in Sinful Grid in time. “We thank everyone for their time that they have spent in Sinful Grid and look forward to seeing everyone in our new and exciting virtual grid.”

MVC grid offering free parcels

Anyone who needs free land on the MVC grid can contact administrator Natasha Thiebaud in world. The parcels are available at the Home region of the virtual grid and are 2304 square meters in size and can hold up to 878 prims.

There are no specific rules for getting the free land.

There are also free stores available for creators and designers at the Plaza region.

The grid has also enabled a local grid currency for payments, grid owner Arturas Baltrukaitis told Hypergrid Business.

“MVC grid has enabled in-game currency or V$ for micro-payments,” he said. “Residents can buy it directly on our web page or purchase it by using in-world terminals of third parties re-sellers Podex and VirWoX.”

GreekLife now has a market place

GreekLife grid finalized its online marketplace yesterday and is inviting residents of other grids to create stores and use the marketplace. The marketplace can work with any currency from any grid, making it easy to run the store. It works like the old Second Life marketplace.

Anyone willing to create a free store can contact Nickos Mit, commonly known as Nick the Greek, in-world.

The grid is also offering free parcels holding up to 480 prims on the Greek Community region.

There is free land offers at the Mykonos region of the grid. (Image courtesy GreekLife grid.)

Earn in-world at Immersive Reality

Immersive Reality is now using the Podex money exchange to allow members to buy in-world IR$ currency but you cannot convert it back to real world money.

If you are a creator, you can work for them by building virtual slot machines and earn 60 IR$ per hour, Bob Reite told Hypergrid Business.

Rent land and get combat system free at Konk

The Konk grid is offering regions for $7 for the first three months, for a limited number of customers, said owner Mica Breen. Contact Breen at konkcombat@gmail.com for the details.

“All lands include our full combat and role play system suitable for Gorean and medieval and other style of metered combat in OpenSim,” Breen told Hypergrid Business. “Currently we have around 15 different regions hosting the system throughout the hypergrid comprising of many grids — Digiworldz, Kitely, AviUnite, Osgrid, Virtual Brasil,  Great Canadian Grid and of course the Konk grid with the main purpose here is to make a combat oriented grid.”

The combat system is given for free as an add-on to the land purchased. The land rental price will go to $15 per month after three months.

Land for only $1.25 at Tangle Grid

Tangle Grid is offering 5,184 meter square parcels with up to 1,250 prims for only $1.25 a month at the Dream Island region, grid media spokesperson known as Rainy-Dae Pixels in world, told Hypergrid Business.

“These have been set up for those who want more freedom than found within the free suburban areas, but who don’t want to spend $8 or more on a full region,” she said. “It’s a great way to dip the toes in and settle-in to Tangle.”

The Dream Island at Tangle grid. (Image courtesy Tangle grid.)

The grid is also holding its birthday celebration at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, July 7 at the Welcome Island on the beach.

It may go all day, depending on the entertainment plans for the day, which are yet to be completed.

“Leslie, one of the grid owners and founders will be kicking off the DJ’ing,” she said. “I’m hoping to extend it to an event going into the afternoon. I have a few DJ’s I’m going to talk to. It is pretty much a Party on the Beach to celebrate four years of Tangle combined with a bit of a meet and greet and it will be near the arrival or Welcome area so that it will be easy for any visitors to access.”

The grid now has a new forum for residents and these, together with the existing communication tools, will help residents share events and find support, said Pixels.

3rdLife to hold birthday party and monthly race

3rd Life Grid will host the grid’s monthly race at 12 noon Pacific Time on Saturday, June 17 to celebrate their Dads Day Race.

The grid will also celebrate its first anniversary from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time on July 14, featuring two live performers from Second Life. Gary Jonstone, who is considered the premiere male country voice in Second Life, will start performing at 6 p.m, grid owner Tommy Seetan, also known as Gary 3rdLife, told Hypergrid Business.

“His high energy and easy, friendly way with people makes him extremely popular,” he said. “Combine that with the smoothest, deepest voice you’re ever likely to hear on any grid, and you have one of the most uniquely powerful shows anywhere.”

Shayne Jonstone, whose shows are also fun filled and energetic according to Seetan, will start performing at 7:00 p.m.

Moonglow grid to get a new server

Moonglow grid, which now has 53 members and 33 regions, is working on getting a new server to make operations run faster and doing some work on the database.

Transitions

New grids this month are the FranEsti Grid, which currently has two regions, a total of 11 residents and attracted four unique users in the last one month. The DevWorks Open-Source Initiative grid is run by an initiative looking to provide free open-source and proprietary software and scripts for businesses, 3D worlds, corporate world and start-ups.

The following 10 grids were suspended this month: Anvil1, Binary Hills, CyberFace, Microgrid Sundance, MysticGrid, Pegasus, Smxy, Snaketopia, SUT 3D, and Terra Virtua.

June Region Counts on the Top 40 Grids

The list below is a small subset of existing OpenSim grids. We are now tracking a total of 1,241 different publicly-accessible grids, 276 of which were active this month, and  197 of which published their statistics.

All region counts on this list are, whenever available, in terms of standard region equivalents. Active user counts include hypergrid visitors whenever possible.

Many school, company or personal grids do not publish their numbers.

The raw data for this month’s report is here. A list of all active grids is here. And here is a list of all the hypergrid-enabled grids and their hypergrid addresses, sorted by popularity. This is very useful if you are creating a hyperport.

You can see all the historical OpenSim statistics here, including polls and surveys, dating all the way back to 2009.

Below are the 40 largest grids by total land area, in terms of standard region equivalents.

Top 40 grids: