RuneScape experienced a surge of popularity over the 2025 holiday season. While fan nostalgia for a game that is now 25 years old plays a role, the revival more clearly reflects recent changes to RuneScape’s controversial monetisation – changes that appear to be drawing players back.
I worked at RuneScape from 2008 until 2014. First as a content developer – a designer, writer and implementer for the frequent updates – then as a senior designer, design lead and product owner for non-subscription monetisation.
Runescape is a multiplayer fantasy roleplaying video game, originally played via web browser but now downloadable. It was venerable even when I joined, and the questions that were on my team’s minds at the time are still relevant now – particularly around risks and benefits of courting player nostalgia, preserving versus modernising the game, and how to monetise in a sensitive way.
