Second Life Users Top 1.3 Million in March

Second Life attracted 1.3 million users who logged in March 2007, a 46 percent increase over January of this year, according to data on the virtual world released by comScore Networks.

Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Labs. Users create an online persona and interact with other users, own property and build residences, and can hold jobs and earn Linden dollars. Data listed on Second Life’s Web site states just over 6 million as the total number of residents, and says 1.7 million have logged in over the past 60 days.

Second Life users are primarily European with 777,000 participants or 61 percent of the total. Germany’s users number 209,000, or 16 percent, and narrowly outnumber US users at 207,000 or 16 percent. Growth from January to March of 2007 was higher in the U.S. with a 92 percent increase in U.S. logins versus 70 percent in Germany.

“With nearly 800,000 active residents in Europe, Second Life is proving to be popular on an international scale,” Bob Ivins, MD of comScore Europe, said in a statement.

Secondlife.com attracted 3.6 million visits worldwide in March, a 17 percent increase from February. Visits to the Web site, “indicates a continuing and potential future growth in Second Life residents, since the software application used to access the Second Life world is only available from the site,” comScore said a statement.

The data are derived from comScore’s panel, a permission-based global cross section of over 2 million consumers tracking browser and transactional behavior. Panelists also participate in survey research.