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Linden Lab says it has spent $1.3 billion building Second Life and paid $1.1 billion to creators since the virtual world launched in 2003. Those are cumulative figures reported by GamesBeat from company leadership—not independently audited totals—and the cited report was last updated June 18, 2025. They should not be read as newly measured figures for 2026.
What the $1.3 billion and $1.1 billion figures mean
In a December 2024 interview, Linden Lab executive chair Brad Oberwager said, “We have spent over a billion dollars investing in Second Life as of this year.” GamesBeat reported the more specific cumulative figures as $1.3 billion spent building Second Life and $1.1 billion paid to its creators since 2003. GamesBeat’s report is dated December 19, 2024, and marked updated June 18, 2025.
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The figures describe different flows of money: investment in building the platform and payments to creators. They are not a complete income statement, nor does the reporting establish that the two totals use matching accounting definitions. The sources reviewed do not provide audited statements or a full methodology for either number.
What is—and is not—known about Linden Lab’s spending
The $1.3 billion is a headline cumulative spending figure, not an itemized budget. The report does not say how much went to engineering, servers, customer support, marketing, or other costs. A contemporaneous account of the December 6, 2024 town hall also describes the figures without supplying a cost-category breakdown. Inara Pey’s community report provides that event context, but it is not a substitute for company financial records.
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Annual creator payouts and the size of the economy
The lifetime totals are easier to interpret alongside the periods reported for more recent activity. GamesBeat describes Second Life’s economy as about $650 million a year. It gives two creator-payout figures in separate contexts: about $78 million paid in the preceding year, and $79 million in the 12 months ending June 2024. It also reports roughly $500 million in creator payouts from 2018 through June 30, 2024. These approximations cover distinct periods and should not be combined into a single current annual payout estimate.
“Economy size,” platform revenue, creator payouts, and what a creator ultimately keeps are different measures. The cited coverage does not provide a harmonized accounting definition that makes them interchangeable.
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- Use your Visa Gift Card in the U.S. everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, including online.
How creators sell and receive money in Second Life
Linden Lab’s creator page currently presents a 90/10 revenue share and says creators can sell directly in-world and on the Marketplace. It also describes exchanging Linden Dollars for cash through LINDEX, alongside creator resources for scripting and 3D content. This is the company’s description of its current model; it does not independently verify the historic $1.1 billion payout total or establish one universal take rate for every transaction. See Linden Lab’s creator information.
Why comparisons with Roblox need care
GamesBeat’s report includes Roblox’s objection to some comparisons. Roblox said its creator services include tools, hosting, distribution, and other platform services, and the report notes that the companies’ creator populations and payout definitions differ. A fair comparison must identify both the time period and who counts as a creator—for example, all users, active creators, people who earned anything, or people eligible for cash-out. It must also distinguish gross economic activity from platform revenue, creator payouts, and creators’ net income. Without those aligned definitions, headline payout or revenue-share figures can give a misleading impression of which platform pays creators more.
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What the reported milestones establish
The figures make clear that Linden Lab presents Second Life as a long-running platform with substantial cumulative investment and creator payments. They do not, by themselves, reveal the company’s profitability, the distribution of payouts among creators, the costs behind the investment total, or how the platform’s economics compare directly with another service. The available reporting supports attributing the milestones to Linden Lab leadership, not treating them as audited financial findings.
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