OpenSim land, active users down at close of summer

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OpenSim lost both land area and active users this month. Part of it is seasonal, with schools out of session, and people going outside to enjoy the nice weather. Part of the loss is because The Tag Grid, which reported nearly 1,700 active users last month, did not share those stats this month.

But mostly, the losses were across the board. Of the 265 grids that reported stats this month, 143 lost active users, 28 had no change, and only 74 gained users.

And when it comes to land area, DigiWorldz lost the equivalent of nearly 2,000 standard regions, while ZetaWorlds and OpenManniLand lost a little over 1,000 regions each.

Altogether, the total land area of OpenSim shrunk by the equivalent of 4,361 regions, down to 99,264. And active users dropped by 4,911 compared with last month, down to 33,650.

 

OpenSim land area over the years. (Hypergrid Business Data.)

The top five grids that gained the most regions this month are GorGrid with 415 new regions, Tomi’s World with 273, Counter Earth with 209, Discovery Grid with 77, and FrancoGrid with 67 new regions.

These stats do not include most of the grids running on OutWorldz’ DreamGrid, which is a distribution of OpenSim used by many people to create virtual worlds on personal computers, or private company grids, or school grids who used other installers.

OutWorldz is now tracking more than 2,787 unique DreamGrids in total. The Hyperica robot has crawled over 6,300 grids of any type since the start of this year. These items are tracked in a different database. Hyperica stores online DreamGrids, regions, parcels, regions, objects, and hypergrid events provided the region or item is set for “Show in Search” in-world.

OutWorldz also offers free OARs — complete pre-built regions — and free IARs — user inventory files — as well as mesh objects and textures which OpenSim users can download and install on their own regions on any grid that permits those kinds of uploads.

The Hyperica events listing also lists current and future online events directly published to OpenSim viewers.

The total list of grids tracked by OutWorldz is available here. You can also add your grid in the stats if it is not being crawled by OutWorldz.

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.

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.

Top 25 grids by active users

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.

Top 25 most popular grids this month:

  1. OSgrid: 4,558 active users (HG hg.osgrid.org:80)
  2. DigiWorldz: 2,015 active users (HG login.digiworldz.com:8002)
  3. AviWorlds: 1,975 active users (HG login.aviworlds.com:8002)
  4. Metropolis: 1,619 active users (HG hg.metro.land:80)
  5. ZetaWorlds: 1,412 active users (HG hg.zetaworlds.com:80:Welcome)
  6. Party Destination Grid: 924 active users (HG partydestinationgrid.com:8002)
  7. AviTron: 914 active users (HG avitronlogin.avitron.net:8002)
  8. Exo-Life: 903 active users (HG hg.exo-life.onl:8032)
  9. Kitely: 892 active users (HG grid.kitely.com:8002)
  10. Alternate Metaverse: 736 active users (HG alternatemetaverse.com:8002)
  11. Discovery Grid: 718 active users (HG discoverygrid.net:8002)
  12. Fire and Ice Grid: 682 active users (HG fireandicegrid.net:8002)
  13. Neverworld: 585 active users (HG hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002)
  14. Craft World: 581 active users (HG craft-world.org:8002)
  15. Virtual Dream: 548 active users (HG virtualdream-grid.com:8002)
  16. DreamNation: 534 active users
  17. Soul Grid: 418 active users (HG soul-grid.de:8002)
  18. Dynamic Worldz 2: 388 active users (HG grid.dynamicworldz2.com:8822)
  19. Astralia: 384 active users (HG astralia.eu:8002)
  20. Caprica: 384 active users (HG cg.1studi.ru:9000)
  21. Vida Dupla: 371 active users (HG vidadupla.com.br:8002)
  22. Free Life: 369 active users (HG freelife.outworldz.net:8002:Free Life Central City)
  23. 3rd Rock Grid: 356 active users (HG grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002)
  24. Barefoot Dreamers: 352 active users (HG login.barefoot-dreamers.com:8002)
  25. Virtual Worlds Zone: 345 active users (HG virtual-worlds.zone:8002)

AviTron, which was the biggest mover last month also continued to lead the list of top active user gainers with 451 new active users, followed by Virtualife, which gained 273, Caprica 247, Barefoot Dreamers 186 and Virtual Worlds Zone with 142 new active users.

The actives list is based on active, unique 30-day user login numbers that grids report on their stats pages. Those grids that don’t report their numbers might be just as popular, but we wouldn’t know.

The active user stats are also used to generate the popular hypergrid destinations list, which is useful if you have a hyperport and want to put up gates to the most popular grids, or include the most popular grids in an in-world directory. This list is also a good place to start if you want to open up new stores or hold events, or are just looking for places to visit.

Here some information on how and why you should set up a stats page for your grid. Of course, not all grids need a stats page, especially grids that aren’t open to the public, like school grids, private company grids, small family grids, and so on. From prior surveys, this “dark metaverse” of OpenSim grids might actually be bigger than the one we know about, because those grids don’t need to promote themselves, and we never hear about them.

Online marketplaces for OpenSim content

There are currently 19,013 product listings in Kitely Market containing 37,683 product variations of which 32,616 are exportable.
Kitely Market Product Listing and exportables over the years. (Kitely Market Data.)

The Kitely Market is the largest collection of legal content available in OpenSim. It is accessible to both hypergrid-enabled and closed, private grids. The instructions for how to configure the Kitely Market for closed grids are here.

As seen from the above chart, nearly all the growth on Kitely Market has been in content that can be exported to other grids — that is the green area in the chart. The red area, of non-exportable content, has stayed level.

Offering a convenient and low-cost way for OpenSim users to buy legitimate, legal content not only offers creators sales opportunities that they wouldn’t have otherwise but reduces the need for pirated content, similar to the way that Netflix and other streaming services have reduced the amount of illegal video streaming.

In addition, restricting content to closed grids does little to stop piracy. Most stolen content is ripped from Second Life, the original closed grid. The only time that being on a closed grid offers additional security for content creators is when the content involves high-end scripts or proprietary animations.

Speaking of closed grids — where users are not able to teleport to other grids — the biggest such grid, Tag, also has its own online marketplace.

The Tag grid marketplace now lists a total of 28,256 items, most of which are apparel, avatar accessories, and avatar appearances. The market now has over 300 verified users.

From the marketplace website, anyone is able to list their products or items on the marketplace to promote them either for sale or as a freebie, but the content can only be purchased and used within the Tag grid.

Group seeks content contributions to help battle violence against women

For the first time ever, OpenSim grids, communities, and individuals are invited to participate in 2LEI, an event held annually in Second Life to honor November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

To participate, contact Craft World founder Raffaele Macis, known in-world as Licu Rau, either on the Craft grid or by email at licu.rau@craft-world.org.

Craft is the first OpenSim to officially announce its participation, according to an announcement posted by organizer Rosanna Galvani. Galvani is the founder and owner of Craft World’s Museo del Metaverso.

This year, 2LEI will run from November 5 to 27 and is dedicated to the recognition of rights not yet achieved.

Fire and Ice hires new manager, adds region restart function

Garden and Furniture region on Fire and Ice grid now has Ubode physics supported. (Image courtesy Fire and Ice grid.)

the Fire and Ice grid. has hired Debbie Phoenix, grid owner Sara Payne told Hypergrid Business. 

“She has done a simply amazing job of helping support all our residents. She also helped Rogue get the events off the ground but is now focused on other tasks,” said Payne. “Last month we moved from Bullet Physics to Ubode and she has been instrumental in helping our residents make that adjustment. Overall the move has been a huge success.”

Following the update, one of the most popular regions at the grid, Garden and Furniture region, has been fully updated to support Ubode physics. The grid also now lets customers restart their own regions instead of having to ask an admin. They can do this either through the viewer or through their website account.

“The recommended method is through the web interface,” said Payne. “This is part of our ongoing improvements. We have a new secure interface between our website and our region servers which will allow us to add a host of further improvements in the future.”

The grid has also posted strong growth numbers.

“We have exceeded our highest ever visitor figures this month,” Payne said. “Today it’s showing 513 visitors in the last 30 days. Additionally, we have broken the 100 region barrier with the addition of 16 Gor role-play regions a new landowner has brought to Fire And Ice.”

Hello Outfit Challenge shop hosts Outfit Challenge

Outfit Challenge Event Location. (Image courtesy Outfit Challenge Shop.)

The Hello Outfit Challenge will take place from 12 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, August 25 at the Hello Outfit Challenge Shop on the Xinashi region in Fire and Ice grid. The shop hosts a display of outfits like dresses, skirts, pants, and shorts which anyone can take a copy and use in the outfit they assemble then come to the event to show it off. The friendly, fun, and social event is focused on helping avatars look at their best.

Those participating in the challenge can end up having their outfits displayed for a month at the shop and included in the shop’s main collection. Anyone can also come to the event and see outfits and the displays even if not willing to be part of the challenge display.

The hypergrid address is fireandicegrid.net:8002:Xinashi.

Utopia Skye Grid to host Emergence event

Emergence show will take place next month. (Image courtesy Golden Skype.)

The Golden Touch Theater group will be hosting the Emergence show at 12 p.m. to 2.00 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, September 18 at the Golden Skye region of the Utopia Sky grid. The show involves an artistic dance, poetic theater, and visual entertainment representing a celebration of coming out of the dark. The semi-formal theater experience is set in beautiful surroundings to enhance visitor’s viewing pleasure.

The event will be full of music from the Golden Touch shows, dances with the dancers who’ve performed them, as well as fun all around.

There will be a pre-show event at 12.00 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, August 15 where visitors can come for a dance and a sneak peek of what will happen at the event.

The hypergrid address is utopiaskyegrid.com:8002. 

Karmalot Kingdom due to partner’s disappearance

This was the main entrance to Karmalot grid. (Image courtesy Karmalot.)

The Karmalot Kingdom grid is offline due to the disappearance of one of its partners, grid co-owner Karma Firde told Hypergrid Business. 

But she plans to bring the grid back up again as soon as she can, she said. “I have not stopped wanting my kingdom online.”

She said she does not know what happened to her partner, Raybo Rubble.

“We always kept in touch through our Facebook Karmalot Kingdom account,” she said. “In all those years we have never gone more than two weeks without responding to each other’s texts. We were transferring to an even faster server and updating things, giving the kingdom a fresh look, when my correspondence with Ray took a sudden stop.  The last text I received from him was on May 22. He said that the new server had been a bugger with installing stuff. He wanted to make sure he got it right and did not miss moving things over.”

You can keep up with the latest news on the Karmalot Kingdom Facebook page.

AviTron grid offering free land

AviTron, which now also has its own grid currency, is offering 400 free quarter-region parcels.

Each parcel can hold up to 3,750 prims, with two sides facing water.

The offer is open to grid residents who actively participate in grid activities and collect free tokens at in-world money giver machines.

For more information, visit this page or contact grid owner Alex Pomposelli at support@avitron.net.

Phantom Rose adds role play and a New Orleans region

Starting this month, Phantom Rose grid has added a weekly role-play event on the Bayou region, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific Time every Thursday.

Immediately following is a Pagan drum dance event from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time.

The new Bayou region is a fantasy version of New Orleans and features the city’s Spanish and French influences and architecture. On the region, there are boats, horse and carriage, horseback riding, historic dancing in the assembly room, romantic dancing at the ruins, mermaiding with free gothic fins at Haunted Lake.

Lannorra Sion

There are also several treasure adventure quests that require participants to do tasks and reward them with a special gift at the end, gird owner Lannorra Sion told Hypergrid Business.

There is also a shopping area next to the assembly room, with all free gifts, where you will find a dressmaker with free regency gowns, a Gentleman’s shop with regency period men’s wear, both made by Lannorra Sion along with other shops that feature food, cake plates, and accessories.

New grids

The following grids were added to our database this month: Brogal’s World, Kinknet, Ms Jaxxons Grid, Sharing Is Caring Family, and Twisted Grid.

Do you know of any other grids that are open to the public but that we don’t have in our database? Email me at david@hypergridbusiness.com.

Top 40 grids by land area

The list below is a small subset of existing OpenSim grids. We are now tracking a total of 1,679 different publicly-accessible grids, 321 of which were active this month, and 267 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.

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