December users up on conference, holiday events

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Land area went down slightly but active users were up this month, thanks to the OpenSim Community Conference and holiday events.

The total number of standard region equivalents on OpenSim’s public grids dropped by just over 1,000, from 74,063 to 73,050.

The number of active users went up by 137 from 35,589 to 35,726.

Total regions, in standard region equivalents, on public OpenSim grids. (Hypergrid Business data.)

These stats do not include most of the grids running on OutWorldz’ DreamGrid distribution of OpenSim, or private company or school grids who used other installers. OutWorldz‘ Fred Beckhusen is currently tracking 2,171 installations of his DreamGrid software, which has seen average monthly growth of 28 percent since January.

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.

You can also add your grid in the stats if it is not being crawled by OutWorldz. OutWorldz also provides OpenSim users with free mesh items, OARs and free seamless textures that you can download and use on your grids.

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: 5,110 active users (HG hg.osgrid.org:80)
  2. Virtualife: 2,225 active users (HG hg2.virtualife.cloud:8002)
  3. DigiWorldz: 1,927 active users (HG login.digiworldz.com:8002)
  4. Tag Grid: 1,693 active users
  5. Metropolis: 1,641 active users (HG hg.metro.land:80)
  6. Kitely: 1,198 active users (HG grid.kitely.com:8002)
  7. Foundation Grid: 1,112 active users (HG gridfoundation.ddns.net:8002)
  8. ZetaWorlds: 1,107 active users (HG hg.zetaworlds.com:80:Welcome)
  9. Eureka World: 1,053 active users (HG 54.77.238.20:9000)
  10. VartownGrid: 1,000 active users (HG vartown-grid.ddns.net:8002)
  11. Exo-Life: 813 active users (HG hg.exo-life.onl:8032)
  12. Party Destination Grid: 777 active users (HG partydestinationgrid.com:8002)
  13. Discovery Grid: 729 active users (HG discoverygrid.net:8002)
  14. Craft World: 543 active users (HG craft-world.org:8002)
  15. Free Life: 527 active users (HG freelife.outworldz.net:8002)
  16. Tranquility: 468 active users (HG tranquility-grid.info:8002)
  17. DreamNation: 462 active users
  18. 3rd Rock Grid: 455 active users (HG grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002)
  19. Virtual Dream Grid: 444 active users (HG virtualdream-grid.com:8002)
  20. Neverworld: 428 active users (HG hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002)
  21. Pacification Grid: 407 active users (HG grid-pacification.info:8002)
  22. Utopia Skye: 406 active users (HG utopiaskyegrid.com:8002)
  23. Dynamic Worldz: 395 active users (HG grid.dynamicworldz.com:8002)
  24. Freedom Grid: 351 active users (HG freedomgrid.world:8002)
  25. Dorena’s World: 329 active users (HG dorenas-world.de:8002)

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.

I measure active users by counting both local residents and hypergrid visitors. After all, hypergrid visitors attend events and spend money just like anybody else. If I’m looking for a happening grid, I want one with a lot of people on it — and I don’t really care where their home avatar is based. In fact, several grids are encouraging users to have their avatars on other grids, such as Kitely or OSgrid, in order to reduce the load on their own servers. Many grid owners are also increasingly willing to rent land to visitors, and even give free store space and homes to visitors as well. Their money, after all, is just as good.

Yes, this means that people are double-counted, based on all the grids they visit. But they’d also be double-counted if they created new avatars on each grid. So it comes out even in the end, as far as I’m concerned.

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.

Fire and Ice grid launches with $5 regions

A new grid launched this month, Fire and Ice, with low-cost regions and varregions.

The grid is hypergrid enabled, has Vivox voice, and uses Gloebits as its grid currency.

Region prices start at £2 GDP — US $2.60 for a 2,000-prim region that can be configured as a standard region, a two-by-two, a three-by-three, or a four-by-four varregion.

A  15,000 prim region is £4 GDP, or US $5. The largest region, at 45,000 prims — in any of the size configurations — is just £7 GDP, or about US $9. There are no setup fees.

The loginURI and hypergrid address is fireandicegrid.net:8002.

OSgrid plans Christmas party

Holiday parties are planned for the end of December and start of January on many OpenSim grids, including the most populous grid, OSgrid.

OSgrid, a non-profit that allows users to connect home-based regions for free and is the main testing ground for OpenSim developers, is holding its party on December 27 on the Event Plaza region.

The hypergrid address is hg.osgrid.org:80:Event Plaza and the party will run the entire day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific time.

Tranquility Grid holds parties, raising land prices

Tranquility Grid will hold Christmas parties on Sunday, Dec. 22, Monday, Dec. 23 and Tuesday, Dec. 24. On Thursday, there will be an ugly sweater party. All parties will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time.

The hypergrid address is tranquility-grid.info:8002:Winter Magic.

Tranquility is also increasing prices as of January 1, but there is a promotion on right now where customers can lock in lower region prices.

A starter 16,000-prim region, now $7 a month, will no longer be available.

A standard 20,000-prim region, now $9 a month, will go up to $10.

A two-by-two varregion with 50,000 prims will go up from $19.60 to $23.50, a three-by-three varregion with 75,000 prims will go up from $29 to $33.50, and a four-by-four varregion will up up from $41 to $45 a month.

Tranquillity has also added new functionality to its website to make ordering regions easier.

Littlefield Grid gives away turkeys, hosts parties, and more

Littlefield Grid does a lot every year around the holidays and this year is no exception.

Littlefield has also set up its Christmas Island region for the season, and it is already open to the public and will run  through January 5, with skating, sleigh rides, Santa’s Workshop, and more.

“This year Littlefield Grid has decided to add a special Christmas Shopping area to our Christmas Island region,” grid owner Walter Balazic told Hypergrid Business.

Visitors can pick up free Christmas-themed goodies, including Christmas trees, indoor and outdoor decorations, and home furnishings.

The hypergrid address is lfgrid.com:8002:Christmas Island.

Christmas Island. (Image courtesy Littlefield Grid.)

Littlefield Grid will also be hosting Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties.

On Christmas Eve, December 24 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time, there will be a dance party hosted by DJ Walter Balazic on the Christmas Island region, with party favors, free Christmas items, bonfires, sleigh rides, Santa’s Castle, and more. The following day, there will also be a Christmas party, on December 25, at 8 p.m. Pacific Time, on the same region.

Then the grid will hold a New Year’s Eve 2020 Formal Dance Party starting at 9 p.m. Pacific Time on December 31, hosted by DJ Walter Balazic, with dancing, drinks, food, party favors, free gowns and tuxedos for all guests, and a ball drop at midnight Pacific Time.

The hypergrid address is lfgrid.com:8002:New Years Island.

Kroatan and Kiwo grids join up on Advent calendar

Kroatan Grid has been holding an Advent Calendar event on its region Eternal Ice for several years now.

But this year, the event is being held jointly with KiWo Grid, with a new gift each day on alternate grids, on the Eternal Ice region on Kroatan and the Season region on KiWo.

The hypergrid addresses are kroatan.de:8002:eternal ice and kikiandwollex.de:8002:season.

The event started on December 1 on Eternal Ice, said Kroatan owner Bink Draconia, and then the grids alternated, so that on December 2, the Advent gift was on Season in KiWo. “The last gift is December 24 on KiWo,” said Draconia.

Each of the two winter regions has an identical observatory building on it, each with 24 cubes — 12 with gifts, and 12 with landmarks to the other location.

Tangle Grid holds Winter Expo

Tangle Grid‘s sixth annual Winter Expo began at the start of December and will run through Jan. 13, 2020.

The expo is fully accessible to hypergrid visitors at tanglegrid.net:8002:expo isle.

Visitors will be able to get freebie items, and also purchase content using the Gloebit currency.

Read the full story here.

Winter Expo on Tangle Grid. (Image courtesy Tangle Grid.)

Discovery Grid hosts winter market

Winter Magic region on Tranquility Grid. (Image courtesy Tranquility Grid.)

Discovery Grid opened pop-up market with a winter theme in early December. The Virtual Seattle Winter Market will run through Jan. 7, 2020.

There will be ice skating at the skating rink, carousel rides, bumper skis, and more than two dozen creators from around the grid.

The hypergrid address is discoverygrid.net:8002:Seattle.

The skating rink will be the site of a Classic Rock night on Christmas Eve.

Then, on New Year’s Eve, the grid will host a musical event on the Virtual Seattle region, with DJ Jeff Jeff Edwards, DJ Kith Whitehawk and DJ Astoria.

Seattle region on Discovery Grid. (Image courtesy Discovery Grid.)

“The Fall Pop Up Market was very successful,” Discovery Grid marketing manager Harmony Beningborough told Hypergrid Business. “We are expecting larger participation this time around.”

Top 40 grids by land area

The list below is a small subset of existing OpenSim grids. We are now tracking a total of 1,474 different publicly-accessible grids, 300 of which were active this month, and 239 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.

Am I missing anything? Did I get anything wrong? Email me at maria@hypergridbusiness.com.

And please do forgive the lateness of this report. I was called out of town for a family medical emergency. Which, luckily, turned out not to be! Whew!

Maria Korolov
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