Via the Second Life forum I made my way to a Gamesblog interview of SL founder and CEO Philip Rosedale. From the interview:
In May 2005, the total amount traded in-world was USD$1.47 million. There were 1.3 million transactions between 19,500 unique users.
And to think this is really still in its infancy.
(edit: C|Net has latched onto this interview. you can read that entry here)
I heard about this article over on Gamespot and went looking yesterday, but to no avail. Fortunately, Terra Nova provided a link which I’ve just found. From the article:
“The market is huge… There is no way that our company can be 100 percent successful at shutting down this activity,” SOE spokesman Chris Kramer said.
The company has watched the sale of virtual items evolve from a handful of people to an estimated $200 million market, Kramer said.
“We’ve watched the secondary market skyrocket, even though it’s officially against the rules,” Kramer said. “We can no longer ignore it.”
SOE is Sony Online Entertainment, in case you didn’t know. Sony recently reversed their policy on virtual goods trading and has now joined Microsoft in supporting it. Good read.