Browser-based role-playing game RuneScape has earned $800 million in 17 years

For 17 years of its existence, the MMORPG RuneScape from Jagex Ltd has earned $800 million. During this time, 250 million people have registered in the game.

According to the executive director of Jagex Ltd, Phil Mansell, the flow of new users to the game does not stop, it is in the top 20 for views on Twitch, and one and a half million subscribers follow RuneScape news on social networks.

The game remains afloat thanks to the service support and active community with which Jagex Ltd interacts. For example, five years ago, developers were going to divide the game into old-school and more modern versions, and update only the latter. But they arranged a vote among the players, and they voted against depriving the old-school version of support.

As a result, RuneScape now has two large communities – one for each version. The project does not stay away from trends and is gradually moving into mobile – the beta version for Android has already been launched, work is underway on the iOS beta.

For MMORPGs, such longevity is quite a familiar phenomenon. So, one of the most successful mobile games in the Korean and Japanese markets is Lineage M, a port of the original MMORPG released in 1998.