Second Life Usage Declines In JuneSecond Life Usage Declines In June

Second Life's population growth didn't just slow in June -- it declined in one key metric. The number of active users -- people who have spent more than an hour per month in-world -- declined 2.5 percent to 495,000 in June, and the growth in total user hours slowed to the lowest rate in six months, Reuters reported.

This is worse than the slowdown I reported yesterday.

An optimistic interpretation is that people are simply reacting to excessive hype over the past 18 months. Also, this might simply be the beginning of a summer slump. Of course, it could also be the sign of deeper trouble to come. We do have a couple of causes for optimism. Voice in Second Life is rolling out. It's a bit tricky to configure -- our Tuesday evening Geek Meets have become informal voice tutorials -- but once you get it going, it works great. Voice should make the service more attractive. And the outsourcing of orientation services should help new users connect to communities they might enjoy.