Speaking at the Develop: Brighton conference earlier today, Jagex CEO Phil Mansell reveals that the Fantasy MMO RuneScape has generated over $800 million in lifetime revenue during its 17 years of being online.
As reported by Pocket Gamer, Mansell claims the MMO has garnered 250 million player accounts and is still experiencing consistent user growth, thanks to pushing regular support for the game and being active with the community.
“We realised players might come for the game but they’re staying for the community,” he explains, sharing that the average active player lifetime is over seven years.
It's assumed the revenue accounts for all iterations of RuneScape including RuneScape Classic, the original variant published in 2001(which will be shutting down in August), Modern RuneScape, and Old School RuneScape, an evolving snapshot of the 2007 online game.
While Jagex will be shutting down RuneScape Classic, the developer will continue to support Old School and Modern versions of the game, with Old School RuneScape recently being released in open beta on Android mobile devices.