Research consulting group Kzero has built this chart (click to see full-size), which shows its projections for the growth of virtual worlds in 2008. It's part of the presentation they gave at the Virtual Worlds Forum in 2007, the complete slideshow of which follows the jump. Some interesting questions to mull while in a holiday food coma over the next couple of weeks -- the current crop of Club Penguin kids won't be kids forever, so how will the virtual worlds landscape continue to keep them engaged as they grow? What will the anticipated diversification of virtual worlds look like?

The chart projects Second Life's userbase to double from 10 to 20 million, but the interesting question would be how the world will promote such an increase in adoption when other platforms are gaining in presence at the same time, and the idea of using it for both public and private enterprise has some notches in its luster. Kzero's forecast for There is much better -- projected to grow from 1 million to 7 million users, and things look good for Kaneva, also, expecting growth of .6 million to 3 million.

[Via ArtsPlace SL]