Estimating the total amount of gp in RuneScape

Itâââ‰â¢s been about 9 months since the last time I estimated the total amount of gp in the game, which I calculated at about 455bil then. Since Iâââ‰â¢ve gotten a lot of requests to do the calculation over again lately and since I was interested in seeing the current numbers myself as well, especially with the recent introduction of the large money drain that is construction, I decided to update my estimation.

Using the same techniques as the previous time, I added the total exp of all (130K people) who can make yew longbows (370bil exp), subtracted the required exp for yew longbow making of all those people (which leaves us at 270bil exp left) divided that by the amount of exp gained by making a strung yew longbow (gives us 1800mil finished yew longbows) and multiplied that number by the amount of gp you gain from high alching a yew long, which means a total of 1400bil was created by fletching (estimated this at 420bil the previous time).

For smithing the total exp of all (500K people) who can make steel plates added up to 133bil exp, which, subtracting the exp needed to be able to make steel plates leaves us with 91.5bil after steel plate smithing. Dividing this amount of exp by the amount of exp you gain for making a steel plate, gives a total of 490mil steel plates made. Multiplying this by the amount of gp you gain by high alching a steel plate, we see that roughly 590bil was created by smithing (estimated this at 200bil the previous time).

The last large non-combat gp creator to consider is crafting. The total exp of all (15K people) those who can make blue dragon hide leather bodies is about 25.5bil of which 13.5bil exp was gained after that reaching the level required to craft that. This means that 65mil blue dragon hides bodies were made, resulting in roughly 380bil created. As I estimated that roughly 50bil worth of exp was gained pre-rs2 (thus, before dragon hide crafting) the previous time, Iâââ‰â¢ll be subtracting that this time as well, which means 330bil was really created by crafting (estimated this at 100bil the previous time).

For thieving I added the exp of the first 70K players in the high scores, which came to a total exp of about 48bil. Looking at the average gp thieved / exp gained ratio of the skill, I roughly concluded that 0.8gp was created per exp point gained, which means that the whole thieving skill introduced about 40bil gp in the economy (estimated this at 15bil the previous time).

Lastly, Iâââ‰â¢ll take a look at combat again. Iâââ‰â¢ve considered some of the feedback I received the previous time, and decided to assume that combat created 0.3mil per person on average, whereas I assumed 0.2mil the previous time. I considered the top 1000K players (an average combat level of ~75-80). Multiplying both things with each other gives us 300bil created (estimated this at 100bil the previous time).

Adding it all together: 1400+590+330+40+300 = 2660bil created.

Moving on to the money drains I now guesstimate that somewhere between 100-200bil = ~150bil gp left the economy on banned accounts (estimated this at 50-90bil the previous time). Guesstimating the total of gp drained by expensive item shops at 200bil now (100bil + my previous estimate of 100bil).

Using the same techniques to calculate the gp drained by feather, rune and arrow shops, I now estimate that 4 people * 110 servers on average * 25gp / item * 10 items / click * 3600 seconds / hour * 24 hours / day * 270 days that roughly passed since my previous estimation / 15 seconds needed per click = 170bil is drained by shops since the last time. Adding the previous estimate of 200bil to this, we come to about 370bil drained by regular shops.

Lastly, Iâââ‰â¢ll estimate the total gp drained by barrows. I now estimate that there were about 12.5K full barrow sets on average since barrows came out, 13 months ago. Assuming that people with barrow sets train 1.5 hour a day on average, they need to repair their armor 3 times a month, at a cost of 330K. Multiplying this all together gives 160bil gp drained by barrows (which I estimated at only 10bil the previous time, as barrows was relatively new back then).

Adding all drains together: 150+370+200+160 = 880bil drained.

Now if we subtract the total drains from the total created gp, 2660bil-880bil, we can roughly say that there is 1780bil gp floating around in the economy. I was quite surprised with this number as I expected it more to be around 1300bil, using the calculation that since my previous estimate 3bil gp was created per day on average. However according to these calculations (which are much more reliable) it seems that 5bil gp was created on average since my previous estimate instead and if we observe the money makers, they all roughly seem have tripled the amount of money that they created in my previous calculations.

Feel free to give constructive criticism if you see the need to do so. :)

:shock: Wow... that's alot of money drained and made... How are you able to spend so much time into one equation? lol.

I cant read that much. I just read a final number and nod and agree with Duke. Some good equations there, I hope.

You make me feel like a fetus.

Doubt this is anywhere close to accurate, even in the least.

But as long as you had fun, what else matters.

I still remember seeing your first post and was like :shock: with the amount of money.

Im proud to know i have 3.5m of all that cash rigth now :oops:

I just posted on the first page of a post that will have over 50 pages, yay! :roll:

quite big, i expected about 1.2-1.5T

You have obviously spent more time thinking about this than I, so there is really very little I feel I can say.

Good work on the calculations, and for providing some interesting information which many of us want to read but which none of us will take the time to find out for ourselves. =)

~Dave

Great post, but what about construction?

Great post, but what about construction?

I'll be writing about that soon. ;)

quite big, i expected about 1.2-1.5T

Yes, I'm guessing the rapidly increasing player population of RuneScape is a large cause for it.

is that in pure cash?

is that in pure cash?

ofcourse, in item value, it would be maybe 10-20T?(nobody will ever know, or even be able make an educated guess) even the entire rs would not be able to afford that.

Wow, that's... Crazy, you must of been a physics teacher or something :shock:

You make me feel like a fetus.

Lol what da heck? You made my day dude lol.

Yo duke man you friggin own you da best fo real! are you permmy banitzo? if you didn't complain or post must be you guilty and bad bad boi!

8-) :lol: :? :evil: :lol:

Isn't 1700 billion several trillion?

What about construction, scams, hacks, pk's, deaths to NPC's, glitches, trips to Karajma, low-alchemy, drop parties, lost/dropped, lumbridge/al-kharid gates, quest items from NPC's, buying strength potions, selling stuff cheaper than it normally is (face it...inflation/deflation play a big part of this. If I sell rune plate for 75k, and Oziach sells it for 84k, thats 84k not getting drained...)

We can also never forget what happens when we invest in rares.

Well I think you possibly over estimate a little on things like blue dragonhide bodies made and money drained from regular stores, but then again it's not like I could do a better job, so well done man :) .

Also:

Wow, that's... Crazy, you must of been a physics teacher or something :shock:

Surely you mean maths? And it's 'must have' not 'must of'.

Isn't 1700 billion several trillion?

1.7 trillion I believe :)

is that in pure cash?

Yea it must be.. If it was items jesus.. It would be a huge number.. I myself lost about 2b worth of stuff when i was banned.. Think what duke lost :oops:

It would be so much harder to estimate the cost in items as well seeing as for the majority there are no fixed prices and they're changing all the time.

You might want to take into account people buying runes from shops, that probably drains about 100-200bil since your last "guesstimate" :lol: Also I think you really overguesstimated (what a word!) the amount brought in from alching steel plates, there aren't that many people that really do it. Other than that seems like you've worked really hard on this!! Maybe a guesstimate of total numbers of rares in the game?

You're the master Duke!!

Isn't 1700 billion several trillion?

 

 

 

1.7 trillion I believe :)

well I believe it's 1700000 million or just 1700000000000000 > count the 0's, it's right, that's a massive number.

Loved the calculations Duke!

Nothing I can critisize about there!

Isn't 1700 billion several trillion?

 

 

 

1.7 trillion I believe :)

 

well I believe it's 1700000 million or just 1700000000000000 > count the 0's, it's right, that's a massive number.

that is 3 0s to much :D

its 1700000000000 With 11 0s, not 14 like u typed

and yes i would have said 1.5T seems like i guessed good

with those calculation wouldnt the cash get made only if you get the materials yourself? people buy hides, bars etc and lose money from alching, but then again the person who sells the materials get the cash, and the alcher still makes more from nothing.

its nice to see that you still have an interest in rs and are still playing ypur part in the rs community. i know that not many ppl in your situation would stick around making possitive contributions.

just wondering but have u made/ or have a different account that you use or do u just browse forums?

Duke, you forgot to add my gp's into the grand scheme of things.

Let's see.... take my 14 gps and my 19 tin ore... oh well, nevermind. Mine won't make a difference I guess.

:lol: