The latest metrics and statistics are out from Meta Linden this month, covering April. Remember that period of troubles last month where many said that Second Life was crumbling and that they expected to see some serious falls?

Did the predicted doom come about? Time to look at the numbers.
Average use age has stabilized at 30, having fallen from 37 to 30 between January and March. 73.22% of Second Lifers are 25 years and older, however. More than one in ten Second Lifers are 45 years or older.

Total user hours for April are up 18.71% on the March total, while the total signups increased 16.27% over the same period. There is a new set of figures here, for unique residents (we don't know how that is calculated) but it is up 15.88% from 3,251,579 to 3,768,092. Total user hours are up just over 18%.

Mainland (Linden owned estates) area increased by nearly 10%, and private estates increased almost 17%.

So, it appears that the growth rate dipped a little, but shows no signs of stopping or going backwards. It seems even all of April's troubles couldn't do that. Currency exchange volumes however, are a little different.

Currency trading volume on the currency exchanges dropped almost 1% in April making this the first non-growth month for currency trading. A more stable L$ market only required L$189 million in sales from Supply Linden to balance.

So, no actual doom per-se for April, though the sudden stall in currency trading growth is something to watch. It is notable that no active user figures are included in the metrics bundle this month.