Jagex has revealed today that on its 18th birthday the RuneScape franchise has reached an all-time high, soaring above the previous 2008 peak, following expansion on to mobile. The successful launch of Old School RuneScape on mobile and early testing of RuneScape mobile has boosted subscriber levels to well above the 1million mark. During its strongest year to date, Jagex achieved a number of significant milestones:
- More than 5million installs of Old School RuneScape on iOS and Android since launch
- The RuneScape franchise achieved the highest ever paid membership total in its history over the Christmas period, surpassing previous record set in 2008
- Cumulative lifetime revenue for the RuneScape franchise passed $1billion
- Monthly active users more than doubled over the year with big gains in the last quarter
- Highest ever attendance for annual player convention RuneFest
- More than 100 new hires were added to the Jagex team
Phil Mansell, CEO, Jagex, said:
“2018 was a fantastic year for our RuneScape games, which have truly come of age. The franchise has been growing consistently for five years, and we’ve seen a surge of further community growth with the move to mobile. Old School RuneScape’s successful mobile launch was made possible by our incredible team who’ve been able to make this classic game play smoothly in a mobile form-factor, and which allows players to enjoy the convenience of completely interoperable PC to mobile cross-play. This achievement showcases our living games philosophy; bringing deeply engaging community experiences to players wherever they are.
“We find that the more we listen to, engage with, and empower the community the more if fosters a true connection; with each other and with the games. The big increases we’re seeing in both membership and active users show that we’re not only able to bring new players into RuneScape but we’re able to offer the kind of rich, evergreen content that keeps them engaged for the long term.
“With this success we’ve continued to increase investment levels to expand our games, as well as bringing in a slate of hugely talented people to join us in development, technology and publishing.”
Industry veterans Nick Beliaeff, SVP Development, and Rob Cordero, VP Technology, were added to the Jagex executive team in 2018, and will continue to build their departments in 2019 that will be focused on delivering more great content to RuneScape and Old School RuneScape players, further improving the game experience and expanding Jagex into new areas.
John Burns, SVP Publishing, Jagex, said:
“A number of initiatives really hit the mark for us in 2018, and we’ll be using all of our learnings from these activities to deliver even more this year. Our ongoing commitment to delivering bigger and better content begins this week with the first of three significant Old School RuneScape content updates, Kebos Lowlands, we continue to work on developing RuneScape on mobile and a number of other exciting plans are in the works. Coupled with the strides we’re making with Jagex Partners, 2019 looks set to be another great year for the company.”
Jagex Partners, which will deliver live game publishing and operational services tailored specifically to the needs of third-party studios, was launched in 2018. Development also continues on internal projects, including the mobile version of RuneScape which will soon join Old School RuneScape on iOS and Android devices. The game is currently in early testing. One membership subscription gains players access to expanded features and content in both flavours of RuneScape. More news about Jagex Partners and the mobile version of RuneScape will be revealed soon.
