25 Years of RuneScape: Why 240,000 People Logged In at Once and OSRS Is the Fastest-Growing MMO Alive
By Yellow Hat Editorial ·
RuneScape turned 25 and broke its all-time concurrent player record: 240,000 simultaneous logins. CEO Jon Bellamy calls OSRS 'the fastest-growing MMO in the world.' Here's the full story behind the numbers.
In the summer of 2025, 240,000 people logged into Old School RuneScape at exactly the same time. The most simultaneous players in the game's 25-year history. In a genre where most launches peak on day one and decline for years, a game that looks like it was built in 2007 is adding players at a rate its own developers describe as "bizarre."
THE NUMBERS Paid RuneScape membership crossed "well over a million" in 2025, representing a 30% increase compared to the start of that year, according to Jagex. That concurrent peak of 240,000 was hit during last year's content surge. The game currently sits at around 175,000 concurrent at its daily peak - a number that still outperforms most MMOs that launched in the last decade.
Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy told the BBC this month that Old School RuneScape is "the fastest-growing MMO in the world right now" - something he himself described as feeling "bizarre" given the age of the game.
WHY IT'S GROWING The community voting model is the most consistently cited factor. In OSRS, major updates require 75% player approval before implementation. That mechanic creates genuine ownership over the game's direction that competing MMOs rarely manage. Players return not just for nostalgia, but because the game they come back to genuinely reflects what they asked for.
Several specific decisions accelerated the current growth wave: - Removal of microtransactions: 120,000+ players voted MTX out in 2025. CEO Jon Bellamy acknowledged "real financial ramifications" but committed to it on a 10-year view. The community has rewarded that trust with subscriptions. - UI and QoL improvements: Modernising the interface without changing the game's visual identity opened OSRS to a wider audience - particularly on mobile, where the game now has multi-account switching and dedicated server infrastructure. - Sailing: The first new skill in OSRS's history, delivered after years of community polling, represented a genuine leap of faith between Jagex and its playerbase - and it landed. - The 2026 content pipeline: Two new quests, a new raid, Leagues VI, a new island, RuneFest - the densest single year of content OSRS has ever announced.
25 YEARS AND STILL ACCELERATING RuneScape launched in January 2001. OSRS, the 2007-era restore, launched as a side project in 2013 and has quietly grown into the larger half of the franchise. The NME's February feature described it accurately: this game has survived an entire industry cycle - browser, desktop client, mobile - and is currently in the strongest position it has ever been.
The Jagex team framing 2026 as "a new beginning" while simultaneously celebrating 25 years is not contradiction. It's confidence earned by a community that has never quite stopped caring. And a game that just put 240,000 people online simultaneously earns a degree of confidence.
If you're one of the returners - or a first-time player who just discovered OSRS - Yellow Hat's [OSRS gold](/osrs/gold) and [accounts](/osrs/accounts) are the fastest way to get competitive. Escrow-protected, instant delivery.
(Sources: bbc.com, January 6 2026; nme.com, February 10 2026; Jagex press release January 2026; r/2007scape. Last updated February 11, 2026.)
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