I don't think Second Life is anywhere near as big as Warcraft, and perhaps not even as big as some other mmogs. It just got tons of press and positive exposure. The game seemed to be unusually interesting to journalists, politicians, and other high-profile people.
The most recent estimates I've found put regular users somewhere around 310,000, which does mean it's growing pretty fast but it's also not even in the same league as WoW which had 8.5 million during the same timeframe. In other words to compare the 6 million figure given by Second Life, it might make more sense to compare box sales.
Didn't anyone notice the significance of country shape and social network? Take a look.
Facebook is clearly Italy.
Myspace vaguely China.
WoW and Second Life definetely Australia, New Zealand.
The Icy North is a very widened North America, (AOL Texas), (Yahoo Games, Florida)
Digg is DEFINITELY a dog with Fark as its head.
The most recent estimates I've found put regular users somewhere around 310,000, which does mean it's growing pretty fast but it's also not even in the same league as WoW which had 8.5 million during the same timeframe. In other words to compare the 6 million figure given by Second Life, it might make more sense to compare box sales.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199203108&subSection=All+Stories
http://mmorpgchart.com/