Autumn has settled over the United States, ushering in Halloween with its spine-chilling festivities and cooler weather that makes staying indoors all the more appealing. And then, of course, there are the upcoming elections. With all these reasons to stay cozy at home, it’s no wonder people are flocking to OpenSim for their digital escape.
Or perhaps something else is drawing folks in. Whatever the reason, the latest stats show an increase of over 3,000 active users on public OpenSim grids compared to last month. Despite some grid disruptions and changes in reported stats causing a slight dip in total registered users, and a decrease in land area by 24,000 standard regions, user activity remains strong.
The drop in land area isn’t mysterious, though. Simation Grid, which boasted 25,408 regions last month, is now down to 1,024. Simation, despite its size, only saw three active users this month. It seems clear that the vast region was more of a server capacity test than anything else. It’s a common practice to push servers to their limits and then scale back — no point in maintaining unused regions!
Currently, we’re keeping tabs on 2,675 public grids. Out of these, 301 were active this month, and 233 shared their statistics. If your grid’s stats aren’t included here, send me an email at [email protected] to ensure it gains the visibility it deserves in future reports.
This month, OSgrid takes the crown as the largest grid in terms of land area with 34,103 standard regions, while Wolf Territories Grid leads in activity, sporting 6,950 unique logins in the last 30 days.
Looking at the graph above, the jump in land area due to Simation is quite noticeable, but now things appear to be stabilizing back to normal levels.
Our analysis doesn’t extend to most grids operating with DreamGrid, an easy-to-use, free version of OpenSim, as these typically remain private.
OpenSim, similar to Second Life, offers a free, open-source platform where anyone can effortlessly craft virtual worlds and hop between them. With some tech know-how, you can even host these worlds on your personal servers at no cost using DreamGrid or the official OpenSim installer, while commercial hosting starts as low as $5 a region.
For those interested, we have a comprehensive list of OpenSim hosting providers here, and you can download the recommended Firestorm viewer from this link. We’ve also got tips on where to snag content for your OpenSim creation.
Exciting News: Hypergrid Business Newsletter
Every month after our stats report, you’ll receive a newsletter brimming with all the past month’s OpenSim happenings. Interested? Subscribe here or fill out the form below.
Top 25 Grids by Active Users
In the realm of social grids, particularly closed ones, more activity generally means a better experience. Users seeking new friends are drawn to grids bustling with people, while merchants and event planners follow the crowd in search of potential customers and the biggest audiences. Here’s a look at the top 25 grids this month:
- Wolf Territories Grid: 7,122 active users
- OSgrid: 4,910 active users
- GBG World: 2,435 active users
- Darkheart’s Playground: 2,206 active users
- DigiWorldz: 2,186 active users
- Alternate Metaverse: 1,980 active users
- WaterSplash: 1,593 active users
- AviWorlds: 1,081 active users
- AviVerse AlterEgo: 1,020 active users
- Neverworld: 965 active users
- Trianon World: 963 active users
- Astralia: 943 active users
- Moonrose: 916 active users
- Littlefield: 862 active users
- Party Destination Grid: 807 active users
- AvatarLife: 735 active users
- SunEden Resort: 692 active users
- Great Canadian Grid: 675 active users
- Craft World: 673 active users
- Groovy Verse: 597 active users
- Herederos Grid: 566 active users
- Kitely: 523 active users
- Gentle Fire Grid: 499 active users
- OpenSim Fest: 432 active users
- Eureka World: 427 active users
Online Marketplaces for OpenSim Content
Kitely Market is home to 21,048 product listings, encompassing 41,164 variations, with 35,920 of those available for export.
Kitely Market has successfully dispatched orders to 632 OpenSim grids to date.
The visual above highlights a surge in exportable content — depicted by the green area — while non-exportable content has maintained a steady pace for a good eight years.
Kitely Market stands as the largest legal content repository in OpenSim. Accessible to both hypergrid-enabled and closed grids, here’s how to connect the Kitely Market to closed grids.
New Grids
This month, no new grids were added to our database.
If you know of any public grids that we’ve yet to list, feel free to reach out via [email protected].
Suspended Grids
The following 13 grids were suspended this month: Angel Souls, Free Life, Insight Concepts, New Life Italy, Nordlicht Grid, OB, Phantom Rose, Pineapple, Planet, ProxyNet, TinkerLand, Trans Sidera, and TUIS Open Grid.
If they remain offline, they’ll be marked as closed in future updates. Grids sometimes change their login URIs or website addresses. If so, just drop me a line to ensure our records stay current.
Top 40 Grids by Land Area
Here’s a glance at the top 40 grids based on land area:
- OSgrid: 34,973 regions
- Wolf Territories Grid: 29,566 regions
- Kitely: 18,165 regions
- ZetaWorlds: 13,023 regions
- Alternate Metaverse: 10,513 regions
- Groovy Verse: 8,459 regions
- DigiWorldz: 3,501 regions
- Virtual Vista Metaverse: 3,259 regions
- CandM World: 2,094 regions
- Discovery Grid: 2,056 regions
- Tag Grid: 1,465 regions
- Shoalwater Bay: 1,104 regions
- Friends Grid: 1,040 regions
- Simation Grid: 1,024 regions
- ArtDestiny: 961 regions
- GBG World: 960 regions
- Virtual Worlds Grid: 914 regions
- AviWorlds: 838 regions
- Craft World: 696 regions
- Kinky Haven: 677 regions
- AvatarLife: 597 regions
- Littlefield: 514 regions
- GorGrid: 429 regions
- Furry World: 373 regions
- Virtual Worlds Zone: 364 regions
- Neverworld: 336 regions
- Darkheart’s Playground: 312 regions
- Nemesis 3D: 305 regions
- EdMondo: 300 regions
- WestWorld Grid: 270 regions
- Open Virtual Worlds: 229 regions
- MisFitz Grid: 213 regions
- Japan Open Grid: 196 regions
- Counter Earth: 196 regions
- Kater and Friends: 185 regions
- Adreans-World: 161 regions
- Utopia Skye: 145 regions
- GerGrid: 141 regions
- XTalent: 140 regions
- Outworldz: 127 regions
Is there an open grid missing from our records? I’d love to hear about it! Send your tips to [email protected].
In the meantime, Maria Korolov, the brilliant mind behind Hypergrid Business, continues to weave her magic as both a successful science fiction author and as an acclaimed technology journalist. Keeping up with her latest musings and stories is as easy as following her on social media or diving into her latest publications.
