As Halloween approaches in the United States, the air is tinged with spookiness, cooler temperatures, and, of course, election buzz. With so many happenings outside, it seems people are more inclined to huddle indoors, which might explain the increased activity in OpenSim. This past month alone saw over 3,000 new active users joining the public OpenSim grids. However, due to grid outages and changes to statistics, the number of registered users saw a minor dip, and land area decreased by nearly 24,000 standard regions.
The drop in land area isn’t as mysterious as it might seem. The Simation Grid previously reported 25,408 regions, but this month it’s down to just 1,024. Despite its vast expanse, Simation is a relatively small grid in terms of users, logging just three active participants recently. It’s likely that the larger land area was part of a server capacity test. Often, grids experiment by adding as many regions as they can manage, but eventually, they scale back. After all, why maintain servers for unused territories?
Currently, we’re keeping an eye on 2,675 public grids, with 301 active this month and 233 providing statistics. If your grid has a stats page we’re missing, feel free to email me at [email protected] to ensure your grid gets featured monthly, giving it a visibility boost with search engines and users alike.
According to this month’s data, OSgrid leads the pack in land area with 34,103 standard region equivalents, while Wolf Territories Grid shines in user activity, attracting 6,950 unique logins over the past month.
The graphic above illustrates how the Simation regions caused a land size spike during the summer, but things have now settled back to their usual pace.
Please note that our statistics don’t typically cover most DreamGrid-run grids, as these are often private. OpenSim is an incredibly user-friendly, open-source virtual world platform reminiscent of Second Life, ideal for those who want to create and explore virtual worlds without needing extensive technical abilities. Tech-savvy users can run their worlds on their servers for free, using DreamGrid, the more technical OpenSim installer, or other distributions, with commercial hosting available for as low as $5 per region.
A list of hosting providers for OpenSim is available. To get started, you can download the recommended Firestorm viewer and find out where to get amazing content for your OpenSim creations.
Moving on to some exciting updates, the Hypergrid Business newsletter is now out. We’ll deliver the latest OpenSim news straight to your inbox every month on the 15th, just after the stats report drops. Sign up right here or by filling out the form below.
Top 25 Grids by Active Users
In the realm of general-purpose social grids, especially those that are more closed off, a bustling grid is often the most appealing. Individuals eager to socialize typically gravitate toward grids brimming with users. Similarly, content merchants target grids with substantial foot traffic for maximum sales opportunities, while event coordinators seek out the largest audiences. Here’s a look at this month’s most popular grids:
- 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
Currently, the Kitely Market boasts 21,048 product listings, with 41,164 variations. Impressively, 35,920 of these can be exported beyond Kitely.
Kitely Market has processed orders for a whopping 632 OpenSim grids to date.
As depicted in the chart, almost all Kitely Market’s growth has involved exportable content—represented by the green area—a stark contrast to the non-exportable content in red, which hasn’t changed in eight years.
Kitely Market stands as the largest repository of legal content in OpenSim. Accessible to both hypergrid-enabled and closed grids, instructions for configuring Kitely Market for closed grids can be found here.
New Grids
This month, no new grids were added to our database.
If there’s a public grid we’re missing, don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected].
Suspended Grids
Thirteen grids were marked as 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 closed in future updates.
Grids occasionally change their login URI or website address. If that’s the case, shoot me an email so I can update our records.
Top 40 Grids by Land Area
The region counts in this list are provided in terms of standard region equivalents whenever possible. Active user counts include hypergrid visitors as much as feasible.
Several schools, companies, or personal grids don’t share their numbers publicly.
For those interested in this month’s raw data, you can find it here. There’s also a list of all active grids available, plus a rundown of hypergrid-enabled grids with their hypergrid addresses, organized by popularity – incredibly helpful if you’re setting up a hyperport.
Interested in past OpenSim stats? They’re all available here, tracing back as far as 2009 through various polls and surveys.
- 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
Are you aware of any other public grids we might have missed? Feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Maria Korolov, editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, isn’t only a science fiction novelist but also an award-winning tech journalist covering AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise VR. Stay updated with her work on Amazon and follow her on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, or even check out her YouTube channel. Her virtual world novella, "Krim Times," made the Amazon bestseller list, with its sequel, "The Lost King of Krim," now available. Maria also publishes MetaStellar, a magazine featuring speculative fiction. You can reach her at [email protected].
