Second Life demographics

[Chassie Rowley]

It's a safe bet this question has been asked before but has anyone done a demographic research of SL in recent years and what were the results?

I recall about 5-6 years ago, someone posted a demo sheet that showed a surprising high use of SL by those between 45-60 years of age. I was suspecting a much lower number and higher for ages between 18-30 years of age.

[Fritigern Gothly]

There is not much pew pew and bang boom in SL, and if there is some, it is easily avoided. Younger people like the action, the fast pace of games like Fallout and all that, but after a certain age, many people find that they would rather relax instead of run around and try to kill people or aliens. This seems to appeal more to those that have nothing to prove anymore, which are often people around the 45-60 age bracket. 
Plus, around that age you start to feel "gee, I would like to do this or that again" or "I wish I had taken up skydiving" or "I wonder what it would be like to (fill in the blank)".

Of course, this can not be said for ALL people in these age brackets and it is not my intention to generalise because there are always people for whom this picture does not apply, but it is my personal theory that the above is why so many of the higher ages are attracted to SL and stay here. 

 

[Syo Emerald]

1 hour ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

Younger people like the action, the fast pace of games like Fallout and all that, but after a certain age, many people find that they would rather relax instead of run around and try to kill people or aliens.

I find this to be a very reduced the description of Fallout... or any other game for that matter. Games are very different and have more to them than "running around and killing stuff" (unless the game is a pure Shooter).

I think Second Lifes user base skewes older for other reasons. Nobody turns down SL because its not "fast paced" enough or because there isn't something to kill (by default). Second Life is old and part of the userbase aged with it. It has a harsh learning curve and is not optimised. This drives younger people away, because if they are familiar with gameing environments, thats what they expect. But the extra appeal for older generations could indeed be true.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

I've been here since I was 28, I'm now 41.   if that's what your asking.

[Vanity Fair]

Second Life users tend to be significantly older overall than, for example, Fortnite users. One reason is that SL has been around for over 17 years now, longer than most other virtual worlds and games. 

 

[Rolig Loon]

7 hours ago, Chassie Rowley said:

has anyone done a demographic research of SL in recent years and what were the results?

Nope.  The only people who can do that sort of a study are in Linden Lab, and they don't publish demographic information for the rest of us to look at.  Even their own data are likely to be messy, since they don't really know how old anyone is.  At best, all they can do is assume that we are all telling the truth when we sign up.  Many, many years ago, LL did publish demographic profiles, but they stopped doing that in about 2008(?).  At that time, the median age was somewhere in the upper 30s.

[Lindal Kidd]

5 hours ago, Syo Emerald said:

Nobody turns down SL because its not "fast paced" enough or because there isn't something to kill

I beg to differ.  A great many newbies I've tried to help won't stick around even long enough for me to type an explanation.  Or after I've taken them through a few basic things, they say "I'm bored" and vanish forever.

I do agree that a lot of us have aged along with SL and that helps to skew the demographic.  But a lot of us were older when we started, too!

[Rolig Loon]

42 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I do agree that a lot of us have aged along with SL

I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone who has NOT aged as SL has, but that says something about my lack of imagination, I'm sure.

[Rowan Amore]

45 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I beg to differ.  A great many newbies I've tried to help won't stick around even long enough for me to type an explanation.  Or after I've taken them through a few basic things, they say "I'm bored" and vanish forever.

I do agree that a lot of us have aged along with SL and that helps to skew the demographic.  But a lot of us were older when we started, too!

It's the instant gratification that you don't get in SL.  The people who 'game' tend to like that...a goal, a mission, some way to win.  A lot of times when I see something in someone's profile about being a gamer, they also have the disclaimer, "I may be afk playing a game in another window, leave a message.  I'd bet these are mostly younger people.

[LittleMe Jewell]

4 hours ago, RowanMinx said:

It's the instant gratification that you don't get in SL.  The people who 'game' tend to like that...a goal, a mission, some way to win.  A lot of times when I see something in someone's profile about being a gamer, they also have the disclaimer, "I may be afk playing a game in another window, leave a message.  I'd bet these are mostly younger people.

^^

And there are also those that come here thinking it is another FB and/or Tinder, and then bail when it isn't.  My guess is that those are mostly younger folks - under 40, possibly even under 30.