Recently I checked the site analytics for runescape.com. Since the only way for players to play Runescape is to visit runescape.com either through a browser or a client, this should be an accurate measure of how many people are playing the game. This is what I found:

 

Alexa

 

 

Compete

 

 

Google Trends

 

 

 

There's unmistakably a downward trend in the player count of the Runescape population. This is probably due to greater competition in the marketplace, with many more free to play or light subscription MMOs than ever before. Don't get me wrong, this post is not meant as trolling or flamebait. I have been a Runescape player since 2001 and I love the game, I am simply presenting the facts. Are you happy with the current size of the RS population? If not, do you think Jagex should make a greater marketing effort in order to popularize the game more? I don't want to be a fear mongerer but it looks like at this rate the RS population might dwindle quite significantly in the years to come.

That's interesting. Anyways, I'm quite happy with the current population. 120k+ people online at once is plenty. I don't see these drops affecting RuneScape any time soon.

...or do to jagex.

I could care less if there is 10k less players than there was 6 months ago. Im having fun :)

Maybe people aren't constantly refreshing for updates as much as they used to?

I for one am fine with the population of rs not increasing. It's hard enough at times to find spots for various skills, not to mention the sheer price of some items due to demand.

 

Although I do enjoy seeing rs succeed.

Although there are a few things to consider:

 

1. Before everything on the site was intergrated into the login screen, multiple refreshes of the website was required (world hopping, etc.)

2. Many members had f2p alternates and thus had to reload the site to log on to a f2p world

3. GE would mean less people competing for world 1/2/3/4, thus less people refreshing the site to try to get in

4. I believe in SwiftKit, clicking on a world refreshed the website as well.

 

Maybe not enough to count for the 500k players or so of less traffic, but worth mentioning.

P2P population has stayed the same, F2P have dwindled in number. I'm fine with that.

I find it interesting that there are player spikes during Christmas time. Possibly for the Christmas event.

Although there are a few things to consider:

 

1. Before everything on the site was intergrated into the login screen, multiple refreshes of the website was required (world hopping, etc.)

2. Many members had f2p alternates and thus had to reload the site to log on to a f2p world

3. GE would mean less people competing for world 1/2/3/4, thus less people refreshing the site to try to get in

4. I believe in SwiftKit, clicking on a world refreshed the website as well.

 

Maybe not enough to count for the 500k players or so of less traffic, but worth mentioning.

 

The Compete metric measures unique visitors, probably by IP address. That would mean that the amount of refreshes wouldn't matter. From those numbers the active userbase (those that log on at least once a month) has dropped from 2.9 million to 2.2 million from July 2009 to July 2010, a 24% decrease. At the same rate, there would be only 1.7 million active players by July 2011. This worries me a little; less players = less money for Jagex = less frequent/smaller updates.

I dont really mind how many people are playing. Im having fun playing the game and thats all im really in it for. Sure more people playing means more opportunities for friends but that really isnt the case anymore because of how many people already play this game and the restrictions on some in game activities which result in hostile attitudes and stereotypes. If anything i think a smaller player base would be better just for the community that comes with it, but runescape is already so far gone that the community is already corrupted.

Funnily enough, most of the "down-trends" start around December of '07. Hmm. Wonder why....

Funnily enough, most of the "down-trends" start around December of '07. Hmm. Wonder why....

Some people left, yes, but many more gold farmers left.

 

Most bots nowadays are "players" trying to get high level stats/gp. Pre-2007, most bots were just gp-farmers who would sell the gp for cash.

I really don't notice a difference in most area's from since i've started playing. I'd say most lost players were f2p/pures/gold farmers/bots/low levels.

I'm guessing that Runescape will probably depreciate to the point where not enough players will satisfy

the content of the game. I remember playing battle.net on Warcraft 3... there were TONS of

players and you instantly find matches everytime you loggin and now you can hardly play anymore

because not enough people can join to form matches...

If you see for yourself, literally NOBODY gets on battle.net for Warcraft 3

I'm edging towards that feeling for Runescape somewhere in the future and I do agree with this thread.

It's a bit sad when you think about how populated the game was (regardless of if the players were bots or whatever) a few years ago compared to now. I remember years ago it would constantly say 200k+ players online, now we're lucky if it hit 110k. I usually see it at 90k now. On the flip-side, maybe the community of Runescape has somewhat matured over the years? And the drastic decrease was the players who aren't mature enough. I understand some players aren't mature anyway, but I feel that a lot if not all the people I currently talk to and have grown up playing the game with have matured over the years, and that could be why they are still here. I rambled a bit, but oh well.

Online games slowly lose players.

 

In other news, the sky is blue.

I remember like year ago it was hard to login to w1 and w2 in peak times...once i had to try even 30min to get in...now i can get in under 2min trying no matter of time/world.

I remember like year ago it was hard to login to w1 and w2 in peak times...once i had to try even 30min to get in...now i can get in under 2min trying no matter of time/world.

 

The GE replaced the need to stand into W1,2 for ages trying to sell things.

Deosnt Alexa only count those who use their toolbar? These stats are meaningless

This week I seen a topic with a picture of google search stats, and Runescape had more hits than WoW.

So I don't really know about this.

 

Edit:

NVM, if you search WoW you get way more hits..

 

K, runescape is dieing, I don't care, I still enjoy it.

 

Edit: Edit:

K, just noticed if I gave up wow to compare, I get lots of things unsimilar to World of Warcraft, so it's too hard to compare.

 

Edit: Edit: Edit:

Link: http://www.google.com/trends?q=runescape,+world+of+warcraft&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

If we look at proper graphs showing total players online...

 

Thanks to Cruiser.

 

It has decreased of course over the past few years. Probably mainly due to bots and over assumption of bad updates, but it's not that much tbh.

Anyone know why December 2009 seemed to have an abnormal increase in population?

Deosnt Alexa only count those who use their toolbar? These stats are meaningless

 

AFAIK All of those sites are pretty awful in terms of actual hits. There have been several cases where people run two separate trackers (such as Google Analytics) where there is actually javascript on your page and whenever that is loaded it counts as a hit and the differences can be quite astounding. Most of the time these sites under-report numbers, or have no real way of truly knowing.

I love RuneScape even more when it hit 200k+ people currently playing online. :thumbup: RS at it best!