RuneScape hits the 200 million mark
Friday, July 20, 2012 1:26 PM
British developer Jagex has announced that its phenomenally successfully massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), RuneScape, has made gaming history by smashing through the 200 million registered players mark.
The Cambridge-based games studio first launched RuneScape in 2001, since when its players have clocked up a mind-boggling seven billion hours of gaming - that's around 800,000 years of play time!
Amazingly, if RuneScape's population - which is comprised of people from over 150 territories of the world - is compared other countries, it is the 5th largest behind only China, India, the US and Indonesia.
This makes the title the world's most popular free-to-play adventure MMO as recognised by Guinness (the record book division as opposed to the brewery).
Commenting on these astronomical numbers, Jagex chief executive officer Mark Gerhard said: "When the game was first released, nobody could ever have expected it would reach such high levels of popularity largely by community word of mouth.
"It has been an incredible journey to get to where we are today, and by continuing our tradition of constantly innovating, evolving and lovingly crafting RuneScape we are certain to continue to break records by creating an online adventure like no other."
To mark the achievement, Jagex yesterday launched a three-day in-game celebration, including the appearance of a demon with 200 million hit points that can only be defeated by a special weapon designed especially for the occasion. There is also a microsite featuring an interactive timeline charting the game's evolution.
And despite, reaching the 200 million player mark, the developer says there in no sign that interest in the medieval fantasy game is on the wane (watch out Indonesia).
"We've witnessed a really strong resurgence in the game's popularity over the past two years and are seeing strong player growth year on year," Gerhard added.