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Second Life Gets More Playtime than StarCraft, Half-Life, Others, Says Nielsen

Posted 05/09/09 at 01:19:48 AM  by Nathan Grayson

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Massively multiplayer online everythingamajig Second Life’s total player numbers may be debatable at best, but the dedication of said, er, eclectic legion sure isn’t. According to a study conducted by Nielsen Media Research, Second Life gets more average playtime per week than games like StarCraft, Warhammer Online, and even World of Warcraft!
 
Lest you cry foul of Nielsen’s study, however, know this: World of Warcraft players still far outnumber those of Second Life, racking up 46.710% of total PC gaming time, while Second Life picks up a silver medal with 3.206%. Second Life’s significantly smaller group of players, then, just loves its game of choice a bit more than players powering Blizzard’s piggybanks.
   
Even so, however, Second Life still far outstrips most every other MMO on the market -- in terms of average playtime and total percentage of the pie -- including Warhammer Online and Eve Online, both of which didn’t even make the top ten.

Just for clarification’s sake, the study was conducted among a sample of almost 200,000 people –- not just hardcore gamers. It was, apparently, a random sample.

The only thing that makes us question this study? That’d be Dark Horse of Might & Magic in third place. Um, really? Not to question the alchemy behind Nielsen’s algorithms, but do you know anyone who actually plays that game anymore -– on a regular basis, no less?

COMMENTS:5
TAGS: games, Software, news, world of warcraft, Half-Life 2, second life, StarCraft, Nielsen Media Research
COMMENTS
avatarWhat, no Peggle!?!?

Submitted by SwingOp3 on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 5:18am

What, no Peggle!?!?

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avatarMy problem with SL is I've

Submitted by KaylaKaze on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 4:39am

My problem with SL is I've never actually found anything there to DO. Sure, you can walk around and buy stuff, maybe play Slingo, but I've never seen anything else worthwhile. My guess is 95% of those people that got its numbers so high are cybering, while the other 5% are builders.

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avatarSee, you are looking at SL

Submitted by D.E. on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 10:59am

See, you are looking at SL as if it were a game. It really is not The Sims Online 2. Its casual and a social world that does have lots to do when you actually step out to do those things. I have been on SL for 2 years now and its been on and off, but all in all, its a good social platform and really stands well when it comes to show what people collaborating on their own free will can achieve because some of the visuals that players have creafted are just really stunning.

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avatarLOL

Submitted by Terabit on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 4:04am

How did Bookworm get on the list haha. WoW has such a HUGE percentage of that list. 46.71%! There's such a HUGE hap between first and second, it's kind of sad. While I used to play WoW for about 4 years, I finally stopped because they began catering way too much to the noob player, instead of developing more hardcore endgame content. Hopefully when AION releases in a few months it'll be whatme and the millions of other disgruntled MMO'ers are looking for.

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avatarWell,

Submitted by D.E. on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 3:54am

Its not exactly fair to put SL in the same column as WoW and WAR. Its a Virtual World build entirely by its residents. It has no spelled out goals or anything. And it really has the potential to be anything because it can be anything. Not so with other games that have development cycles and all that. Frankly, it is not a big surprise that SL has such high numbers. It is free, it is limitless, and it is virally alive. No patches for new content, since stuff is uploaded every freaking second.

 

However to say that it is competing with or may even replace games like WAR or WoW is out of the question. SL is supplimental to those things, as if it were a 3D facebook/myspace/craigs list/etc.

 

If anyone hasn't tried SL, its really interesting to root around in. And I must say that the player base is very mature (being an 18+ 'game') and also that many of the female avatars are actually women. Oh and of course it is free1 That is three things right there that I cannot say about most any other thing on the internet. :P

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