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RuneScape generates more than $800 million in lifetime revenue

Racked up over 250 million player accounts, experiencing consistent user growth

RuneScape generates more than $800 million in lifetime revenue

Fantasy MMO RuneScape has generated more than $800 million in lifetime revenue.

Speaking at Develop: Brighton 2018, Jagex CEO Phil Mansell showed off some stats surrounding the 17-year-old game.

The MMO has racked up 250 million player accounts and is still experiencing consistent user growth, he claimed.

Mansell also said that the average active player lifetime is over seven years

When it comes to pushing on social and streaming platforms, Mansell said RuneScape has over 1.5 million followers on social media and has top 20 viewership on Twitch.

Games-as-a-service

Mansell put down RuneScape’s long-term success and continued growth down to its regular support of the game and interactions with players - often letting them take the lead on how the game’s development roadmap will look.

“We realised players might come for the game but they’re staying for the community,” he said.

Perhaps one of the biggest decisions Jagex made for RuneScape was five years ago when it debated whether or not to split the MMO into two versions: Old School (based on an old version), and the regular updated version.

The UK developer let the fans vote, and nearly half a million players voted in support of an Old School release.

At first the company wondered whether it would just be a novelty for players, but users have since stuck around for the Old School version, forming two large communities around the two games.

Old-School RuneScape has just been released in open beta on Android mobile devices.

Jagex is still working on an iOS release, which could launch later in the summer.


Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.