Runescape subscription numbers for 2014-2022

[Varpushaukka]

A couple days ago, Jagex finally released their annual financial statement for 2022 (which took unusually long, typically they release these statements 6-12 months after the year ends, this time it took them 16 months), so I thought it'd be fun to make a graph showing how the subscription revenue and subscriber numbers have progressed over the years:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3214077319

Things you should know about this graph:

1. The source of these numbers are Jagex's financial statements published at Companies House (UK government agency that maintains the registry of UK companies), you can verify these numbers yourself from their website: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03982706/filing-history (filter by accounts)

2. These numbers include both RS3 and OSRS, AFAIK there's no (feasible) way to compare the numbers by each game, though some individual values might exist somewhere.

3. Subscriber numbers weren't reported before 2014, and daily average subscribers weren't reported until 2019, that's why the graph begins at 2014 and why some values are missing.

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My personal observations comparing 2021-2022:

1. Even though subscription revenue has grown by roughly 13m pounds, Jagex increased the price of membership (including premier membership) and bonds in 2022, so at least some of the growth is due to increased prices. This excludes grandfathered rates, though.

2. Subscriber numbers seem to have stagnated since COVID, even more so in 2021-2022, but in 2022 the average online player count dropped for both games (source: Misplaced Items, link below), so it looks like people played roughly as often in 2022 as in 2021, but played shorter sessions when they did... probably because COVID lockdowns ended?

https://www.misplaceditems.com/rs_tools/graph/?display=avg&interval=month&total=0

3. Fresh Start Worlds were released in 2022, and Jagex says in the annual report that these were a success, but they don't elaborate how FSW were a success with numbers, so it's not clear how big of an impact FSW truly had. Looking at the stagnant susbcriber numbers, it seems FSW at best kept the subscriber numbers the same, if existing players quit and new/returning players joined. Then again, existing players also played FSW.

[ItzaLaggin]

so? the game aint goin anywhere, 100 bucks a year is pennies a day to escape life and entertain yourself for a while from time to time, no matter where you are. not sure what the point was of your post but as a solo player i couldnt care less if the population dwindles a little lol.....

[Mythtician]

Thanks for bumping. Would of never known the vast amount of bots with subscriptions/membership.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Mythtician:

Thanks for bumping. Would of never known the vast amount of bots with subscriptions/membership.

My guy, Runescape has ALWAYS had major bot problems and it would be folly to believe there were little to no membership bots.

Especially with how reluctant Jagex is to banhammer. Unless you're RWT outside of Jagex and don't give them a cut of the money. Then you'll get the hammer swiftly.

[Varpushaukka]

Originally posted by ItzaLaggin:

so? the game aint goin anywhere, 100 bucks a year is pennies a day to escape life and entertain yourself for a while from time to time, no matter where you are. not sure what the point was of your post but as a solo player i couldnt care less if the population dwindles a little lol.....

The point was to make a graph of the subscription numbers and to draw conclusions (e.g. whether FSW were a success or not) from that data, aka performing basic data analytics. I don't understand where you got the idea that the game would be going anywhere?

[Msooby]

runescape is a free to play game so subscription numbers are irrelevant, since majority of userbase doesnt pay, it would be more relevant if this was for wow, ffxiv or ffxi, which are the only sub-only mmos left

[amathy]

Originally posted by Elfezen:

runescape is a free to play game so subscription numbers are irrelevant, since majority of userbase doesnt pay, it would be more relevant if thi s was for wow, ffxiv or ffxi, which are the only sub-only mmos left

You could take 5 seconds to check player counts for each world and see this isn't true. There are significantly more players in member worlds than f2p worlds.
It's also inherently not irrelevant either way because member counts affect the economy, how many players are potential raid partners, etc. - having a lot of other players is important.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Elfezen:

runescape is a free to play game so subscription numbers are irrelevant

Lol.

since majority of userbase doesnt pay

Lmao even.

it would be more relevant if thi s was for wow, ffxiv or ffxi, which are the only sub-only mmos left

"Jagex's subscription report would be more relevant if this wasn't jagex".

My guy, are you okay?

[Flint]

Too many people missing the point of OP's post.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by ⨂ Flint ⨂:

Too many people missing the point of OP's post.

That's implying the people playing or around Runescape understanding numbers beyond "This is the most effective way to train and all others suck".

I'd never expect the average runescaper to have any understanding of numbers.

[Varpushaukka]

Regarding how much of the playerbase is F2P and P2P: it's true that you can simply glance at the number of players in F2P and P2P worlds, but Jagex has also shared a statistic about this as well. You can find it on the RS3 website under Shop > Membership (link below):

https://rs.runescape.com/en-GB/membership

Under the prices for each membership package, they state this:

"90% of players right now are members"

Now, it looks like this is probably a hardcoded number, and doesn't automatically update like the online player counter does, so the actual % likely varies slightly over time, but if there ever was a significant enough of a change, Jagex would probably update the number accordingly. But yeah, it's quite clear that the vast majority of players are members.