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Old School RuneScape began from a rediscovered 2007 server and now tops 1M subscribers

Jagex recreated Old School RuneScape by booting a rediscovered 2007 server and launched the game as an official classic in 2013. The game has grown significantly since then, hitting an all-time player-count record last August and drawing an estimated one million active subscribers. Jagex staged Deadman All Stars, its largest live event and first outside the UK, to support the game’s renewed popularity. Old School is an early example of an officially supported ‘classic’ MMO that helped inspire similar revivals.

• Jagex found a 2007 RuneScape server in an employee’s desk drawer, booted it up, and used it as the basis for Old School RuneScape, which launched in 2013.
• Creative director Kieren Charles says Old School is larger now than RuneScape was in 2007 and notes the project grew from a player-driven preference for a ‘golden age’ build.
• Old School hit an all-time player-count record in August and Charles estimates the version has upwards of one million active subscribers.
• Jagex held Deadman All Stars, the studio’s biggest live event and first outside the UK, to promote Old School’s PvP scene and international audience.