San Jose (CA) - A new study reports that in the past 12 months, over $1 billion was invested in the market of virtual worlds.

The report, from industry tracker Virtual Worlds Management, said that acquisitions of virtual world companies and money raised from other ventures topped $1 billion in the last year.  That is a new record.

The bulk of that amount, around $810 million, is attributed to acquisitions such as Disney's purchase of Club Penguin and Intel buying out Havok.

In addition, investors contributed around $200 million to companies strictly in this business.  For example, Norwest Venture Partners invested $26 million in Double Fusion, a virtual advertising specialist, over the past 12 months. Rustic Canyon Partners doled out an even more impressive $30 million to Trion World Network, a developer/publisher of online games.

The virtual world space is a multi-billion-dollar industry.  Leading example Second Life still manages to rake in over $1 million in virtual purchases every day.

"We don't see  any slowing in the market adoption of virtual worlds technologies and expect  investment in the space to continue," said Virtual Worlds Management executive director Christopher Sherman.  "In fact the market is growing  significantly, with the rate of adoption of virtual worlds increasing as the  technology matures and has more to offer both consumers and enterprise  customers."