Virtual Worlds Management Report: 150+ Youth-Oriented Worlds Live or Developing

Virtual Worlds Management today released its updated Youth Worlds Analysis. Based on comprehensive research available through Virtual Worlds News, we've found that there are now over 150 virtual worlds operating or in development with a focus on the youth market (18-and-under). That's up from just over 100 in April, though not all of these are new developments. Some are merely worlds that more recently came to our attention. What has changed to some degree is the development status: In all there are 95 youth worlds currently live. Another 68 are in concepting, development, or testing phases.  That's up from 53 in development in April, and I can say for a fact that there are plenty more out there that I know of in stealth mode and I'm sure even more that I haven't heard of. As crowded as the space is, it's only getting hotter.

The demographic breakdowns have stayed relatively the same. While many worlds target a wide range of demographics (sometime as broad as "5 to 18"), there are clear leaders. Those that overlapped, though, are counted twice, once in each category, which may lead to some discrepancies in comparing to past results.

As in April the tween category (here looked at as 8 to 12) leads with 88 worlds live or in development (up from 62), followed closely by kids worlds (7 and under) with 72 worlds (up from 52) and then teens (13-18 years old) with 60 worlds (up from 44).

That makes sense for current usage. According to a recent Nielsen study, Stardoll, Club Penguin, and Nickelodeon are easily the most popular sites among UK Internet users under 12. Once you start looking at teens and older, though, the interest drops precipitously.

All of that is likely to change, though. Sites like Stardoll address a wide range of users and many other virtual worlds or even companies, like Viacom, are addressing the issue of what happens when users grow up. When I spoke with Gaia Online CEO Craig Sherman this summer, he noted that "Our site has actually grown a little older over the last few years. 30% of the users are now over 18 and the site’s, accordingly, grown a little edgier."

As those younger users continue to grow, I'd guess that one of two things will happen. We'll either see a boom of interest in developing virtual worlds for the teen and older sets as we already have for the younger generation, or we'll see more worlds go through the same process as Gaia and age with their existing communities while other worlds rush in to fill the space at the bottom for the new young users.

Right now, it looks like it may be the latter. I've put less than 1/3 of the developing worlds down as specifically targeting teens. However, with those in early stages, some of that comes down just to my guess work. As a counterpoint, K Zero forecasts most of the growth in the coming years in the teen and young adult space.

What do you think? Is there an opportunity to provide virtual worlds for the soon to be teens and young adults or are they moving away from virtual worlds to other content?

Also, if you have any more specific information about any of the worlds listed vaguely here or want to let me know that I've missed something, please do shoot me an email at joey [at] showinitiative [dot] com. Just use "Youth World Update" as the subject line, and your information will be a big help for the next update.

For those of you who have a deeper interest in youth worlds be sure to attend Virtual Worlds Kids at the upcoming Virtual Worlds Expo September 3-4, 2008. Online registration ends Friday, August 29, 2008.

Comments

[Peter Durkson]

While the majority of virtual world participants appear to be "younger", does anyone reading this see a role in virtual reality for helping baby boomers come to grips with the ABCs of aging in place?
www.mauiagewave.com is exploring the possibility of a learning space in a virtual reality to educate and support baby boomers with these ABCs. Participants welcome! Thanks. peter@mauiagewave.com

[Vadim]

I haven't expected such a big amount of new worlds, but I would prefer to see more innovative ideas plugged into them.

Also, I am pleased to know that our world for kids Chobots was listed, but we will go to public beta only in October and we are not live as it is written.