RuneScape has More Than One Million Subscribers - New Record
Last year was very successful for Jagex. The RuneScape franchise has achieved new subscriber and activity records.
The British studio Jagex has reasons to be satisfied. The team has just boasted that last year, more than 1.1 million players were paying for subscription to the MMORPGs the RuneScapeand Old School RuneScape. Both game also offer a free play option, but the developers have not revealed how many people use it.
1.1 million is the highest score in the company's history, which is an impressive achievement given that the first Runescape recently celebrated its nineteenth birthday. Last year, a new record of users playing at the same time was also established.
Let's recall that RuneScape made its debut in January 2001 and has been continuously developed since then. During several years on the market, the devs have not limited themselves to traditional updates. Several times, full-scale sequels were developed, which in practice replaced the previous version of the game.
The project started with simple graphics combining 3D elements with two-dimensional objects. Two years later, players were given the opportunity to play a fully three-dimensional incarnation called RuneScape 2. After the release of the full version, the game was renamed RuneScape, and the earlier release continued as RuneScape Classic.
Today, the base version of the game is in fact RuneScape 3, and RS2 functions as the Old School RuneScape. Contrary to appearances, the second of the two games is not a niche curiosity for the most devoted fans. It is most often played by more people at the same time, which is due, among other things, to the release of the version for iOS and Android devices in 2018.
Currently, the communities of both games are similar in numbers, but users of the newer one are less likely to log on to the servers and play shorter, so it cannot compete in terms of activity records with Old School RuneScape. The mobile version of RS3 debuted last October as part of early access, so we're curious to see how the competition between the two titles will turn out this year.
