1/27/12 Who uses virtual worlds? Some statistics...

Demographics of Virtual World Users:

I am focusing my sims on teen use - grades 6 - 12.  Here are some of the reasons why:

• Virtual Worlds are dominated by youth, users under the age of 25.
• Significant increases in virtual world use are in the 5 - 25 yr old group.
• The 25+ group remains steady at about 3% of the total market.
• I think teens can and want to create their own virtual worlds.

Here are some interesting statistics from KZero.com:
the line graphs are representations of statistics in a chart in the: 
Universe Chart Slideshare Presentation  "Total Cumulative Registered Accounts"
http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/universe-chart-slideshare-presentation/     slide #7.

Participation in virtual worlds is strongly on the rise for 5 - 25 year olds.  

Interestingly, for those over 25, the increase is very small.

As 10-15 yr olds age into the 15-25 yr old group, they continue to join and remain in virtual worlds.  The 25+ yr old group fell slightly to 3% of total virtual world accounts in Q4 '11.
THE question is - as these 5-25 yr old users grow older than 25, what will happen to their virtual world use?  Are virtual worlds truly the domain of youth?