Jagex’s RuneScape franchise achieved its highest-ever player membership peak in 2019 with RuneScape and Old School RuneScape attracting more than 1.1 million paying subscribers, in addition to the many millions who enjoy the free-to-access content. Furthermore, Old School RuneScape, in its first full year on both mobile and PC, saw a surge in popularity with daily active users reaching their highest ever number in the game’s six-year history.
Some of the key milestones reached in 2019 were:
- An all-time membership high for the RuneScape franchise
- Old School RuneScape achieved its highest ever daily active players
- Old School RuneScape on mobile reached more than 8 million installs, won a BAFTA for EE Mobile Game of the Year and was named Best Mobile Game at the Develop Stars Awards
- RuneScape Mobile launched in Early Access ahead of its full 2020 roll out on iOS and Android
- Raised £261,692 for charity and won both the Charity Tim es Corporate Community Local Involvement award and the Gamesindustry.biz Best Places to Work CSR award
- Streamed a record-breaking 11.3 million minutes of content on Twitch from RuneFest, the games’ fan convention
It was also a year that saw Jagex hire more than 100 new employees across development, publishing and operations at its growing Cambridge HQ. Key appointments included former EA Development Director Melissa Bachman-Wood joining as VP of Studios, Product Director at Blizzard Entertainment Ryan Ward joining as Executive Producer of RuneScape, and Rob Hendry, previously Head of Studio London at Natural Motion, joining as Executive Producer of Old School RuneScape
Phil Mansell, Jagex CEO, said:
“Putting Jagex on track for its most successful year to date, 2019 was a record-breaking year for Jagex and our RuneScape communities. We hit exciting milestones, welcomed more members and players to the games than at any point in their 19-year history, achieved significant success on mobile and saw notable industry talent joining our established teams to steer the future for our living games. We’re delighted and deeply appreciate the dedication of our staff and fans.”
“This level of success only comes with the passion of huge player communities, who engage with our games because of the amazing craft and care from our talented teams. It is thanks to these efforts that we’ve been able to greatly increase our investment in our existing games, new product development and the broader business with more than 100 new hires coming onboard in the last 12 months. This includes senior leaders joining from EA, Blizzard, Activision, Ubisoft, Riot and more, adding more than 250 years of cumulative games industry experience to the Jagex team.”
John Burns, SVP Publishing, added:
“With the solid foundation of the RuneScape franchise and significant influx of new talent, 2020 is poised to be a big year for Jagex. These new additions to our team across all levels has added a great deal of industry-leading experience and knowledge to Jagex as the home of living games, and will fuel our ability to expand RuneScape and Old School RuneScape for players across PC and mobile, and extend the operations of the company itself to new sectors, ensuring long term growth for the years ahead.”
With RuneScape reaching its 19th birthday on 4th January 2020 Jagex will be building towards the 20th anniversary in 2021 with a series of initiatives that will celebrate the community of players that make both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape so special. More details will be revealed in the coming months. To find out more about further career opportunities at Jagex, visit the studios careers portal, www.jagex.com/careers
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