One of the oldest online games is celebrating its 18th birthday. RuneScape birthday celebrations are now underway within the Jagex-developed MMORPG which originally launched on January 4, 2001, and is still in active development today.
In a post on the RuneScape website, celebrations were announced for the game. Special birthday cake is being handed out in-game that offer rewards and benefits. Party balloons will also be found around fast travel points that reveal rewards when popped. A number of competitions will also be held over the month, with Twitch streams, art competitions, and more.
Jagex also revealed that RuneScape has reached an all-time high of paid memberships, surpassing a record set in 2008. In a press release, Jagex CEO Phil Mannsell 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.”
Old School RuneScape has also been installed over 5 million times on iOS and Android devices since it’s launch in October 2018. RuneScape and other properties in the franchise have grossed over $1 billion in lifetime revenue, and monthly active users has more than doubled over the past year. Jagex has also hired over 100 new employees over the past year.
RuneScape has undergone a number of massive changes since it released back in 2001. Paid memberships came in 2002, bringing new skills and content to the world of Geilinor. 2004 saw the release of RuneScape 2, which moved the game into full 3D and the original version of the game became RuneScape Classic. RuneScape 2 was then referred to as just RuneScape, and was given a higher-definition makeover in 2008. Old School RuneScape launched in 2013 as a version of the game based on code from 2007. The games are concurrently supported with their own updates and development teams. A mobile version of RuneScape is currently in early access following the release of Old School RuneScape on mobile devices in 2018.
