8BitMMO

VS

Second Life

8BitMMO is a sandbox-style indie MMORPG that launched in 2015. While it is a persistent world with MMO elements, its indie status and age make it unlikely to have a large active playerbase today—most similar indie MMOs decline to a small but loyal community after 5+ years. The lack of major publisher support or recent updates further limits its reach. Estimated daily players likely in the low hundreds.

Second Life is a long-running sandbox virtual world released in 2003 by Linden Research. Its mainstream popularity peaked in the late 2000s, but it retains a loyal user base thanks to its unique user-created content and social interaction. It is still supported and receives regular updates, but its daily player base is much smaller than during its peak years. Current estimates place its daily active users in the tens of thousands.