OpenSim User Growth Slows as Weather Turns Cold – Hypergrid Business

Here in the US, the weather is starting to cool down—well, on some days at least. It’s been a bit erratic lately. Alongside that, various ongoing events have made escaping into the virtual realm more appealing than ever. This shift, not surprisingly, correlates with a rise in both registered users and land areas on public OpenSim grids.

What caught me off guard, however, is the noticeable decline in the number of active users, which dropped by over 2,700.

Of course, some grids have their own issues contributing to this decline. Moonrose, for example, reported over 900 active users last month but has not published any stats this month due to website issues. Vida Dupla, with 375 actives last month, also didn’t share their current numbers. Plus, the Great Canadian Grid, which had more than 600 active users, has closed down.

Adding to this, other grids faced notable declines in user activity. For instance, OSgrid saw a dip of over 800 actives, Craft World lost more than 200, and five other grids each reported a decrease of over 100 active users.

There’s definitely more at play here than just a few closures and reporting gaps.

Could it be that people were busy enjoying Halloween festivities rather than logging in? Or maybe the cool weather had them outside, savoring the fall leaves in their sweaters?

Not quite! According to Paul Clevett, a reader from Wolf Territories, OSgrid is undergoing maintenance. The announcement confirmed this, and I’d like to thank Paul for letting us know!

As it turns out, OSgrid has been offline since November 7 due to storage issues. The grid is grappling with years of accumulated data, estimated at several hundred million assets. Complicating matters, each asset appears larger than the actual size due to redundant storage methods.

The solution involves reconfiguring storage, which means moving millions of assets and eliminating the phantom extra space. This process, if done during regular grid use, would severely disrupt user experiences, hence the grid is in maintenance mode during the major work period.

While there’s no timeframe for how long this will take, fortunately, no assets are expected to be lost in the process.

Currently, I’m keeping an eye on 2,677 public grids. Of these, 295 were active this month, and 232 shared their statistics. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected] if your stats page isn’t being tracked yet—I’d be happy to include it in this report for extra visibility.

This month, OSgrid held its place as the largest grid by land area with 32,867 standard region equivalents, despite losing more than 2,000 regions. Meanwhile, Wolf Territories Grid led in activity, boasting 7,379 unique logins over the past 30 days.

It’s worth noting our stats don’t cover most grids running on DreamGrid, a user-friendly version of OpenSim often used for private grids.

For those unfamiliar, OpenSim is a free, open-source virtual world platform akin to Second Life. It allows users, regardless of technical prowess, to create virtual worlds easily and affordably. There are different ways to run these worlds, from DreamGrid for beginners to more technical options, as well as commercial hosting which starts at less than $5 per region.

For those curious, here’s a list of OpenSim hosting providers, alongside links to download the recommended Firestorm viewer, and where to acquire content for your OpenSim world.

On another note, our Hypergrid Business newsletter is kicking off. Every month on the 15th, following the stats report release, you’ll get all the previous month’s OpenSim news. Sign up via the link or form below.

Now, onto the top 25 grids by active users—a key indicator of vibrant communities. Popularity matters, as creators want bustling grids to maximize their audience reach.

Here’s a glance at the top 25:

1. Wolf Territories Grid: 7,379 active users
2. OSgrid: 4,046 active users
3. GBG World: 2,498 active users
4. DigiWorldz: 2,190 active users

And the list goes on, with grids like Neverworld and Jungle Friends Grid rounding out the group.

Shifting focus to OpenSim content, Kitely Market continues expanding. The market now features 20,973 product listings, encompassing 41,105 product variations, with 35,866 being exportable across 632 grids. The green cluster in the chart highlights this growth in export-ready content over eight years.

Kitely remains the largest curated collection of legal content on OpenSim. It serves both hypergrid-enabled grids and those that are private, with configuration instructions available for the latter.

This month, Kitely also rolled out support for PBR materials and larger textures—a welcome enhancement for users.

Among the newly added grids to the database is NakedWorldz. If you know of any we’ve missed, do let me know.

Sadly, nine grids faced suspension this month, including Angel Grid and DreamNation. These might ultimately be marked closed if they don’t return online soon. Let us know if any grids have just changed their login URI or web address so we can update our records.

Here’s a view of the top 40 grids by land area this month. Although some school, company, or personal grids don’t share public stats, we capture as much as we can.

In closing, if there are any other public grids we’re missing, please drop me an email at [email protected].

I’m Maria Korolov, editor of Hypergrid Business. During the day, I’m an award-winning technology journalist focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise VR. In another life, I’m a science fiction author. Check out my work on Amazon or follow along on social media. I’m also the publisher of MetaStellar, a speculative fiction magazine. For more updates, join our community across platforms!