Open world MMORPG RuneScape, alongside Outdated College RuneScape, have generated over £3 billion (round $4 billion) in lifetime income.
UK recreation trade commerce physique UK Interactive Leisure shared the information of developer Jagex’s milestone. The Cambridge-based studio now employs over 600 folks, and is presently celebrating 25 years for the reason that sequence’ origins.
“It is unimaginable to assume 1 / 4 century has handed since RuneScape’s beginnings as a Java-based browser recreation,” Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy mentioned within the announcement. “As we speak we’re talking to the biggest and most lively RuneScape neighborhood in our historical past, and this milestone is as a lot theirs as it’s ours.”
“The federal government is dedicated to making sure the continued success of our world-class online game sector and I’m excited to see how Jagex continues to innovate, encourage, and construct worlds alongside its international neighborhood,” artistic industries minister Ian Murray mentioned.
Final week, Jagex introduced RS25, a celebration occasion commemorating the anniversary with a sequence of livestreams and updates about Runescape, Outdated College Runescape, and Runescape Dragonwilds, all slated to run in January.
RuneScape celebrations arrive on the again of layoffs and Satisfaction occasion cancellations
In June 2025, Jagex laid off an undisclosed variety of employees from ‘non-game improvement roles.’ The choice was offered as “adjustments to our operational construction,” in line with Jagex, and have been a part of a method to construct “the very best experiences for gamers and develop the Runescape neighborhood.”
Whereas Jagex declined to reveal the precise variety of workers affected on the time, it mentioned the overwhelming majority are inside the operations and administrative help groups.
That very same month, Jagex was reportedly accused of “catering to American conservatism” after pivoting from Satisfaction Month occasions beginning in 2025. Throughout an interview in September, the studio CEO mentioned that the choice to take a step again from Satisfaction Month-related content material was to keep away from “backlash,” because it was “controversial in a method it did not use to be.”
On the time, Bellamy added that, in the end, his job is “governance and safety as a lot as the rest,” and that “these sorts of harsh choices” should be made to guard the approaching way forward for the sport.
“If there are robust choices to be made subsequent yr, we’ll make them. If the world has modified a bit and the setting is completely different, we are going to react accordingly,” he mentioned.
