Old School RuneScape continues to ride the wave of success despite its old age. Now, the 12-year-old MMORPG has even broken its own all-time record.
What is the current status of Old School RuneScape? At the end of July, MeinMMO reported that the 12-year-old MMORPG is enjoying unusually high player numbers. Such high numbers that the developers have already provided 18 new worlds. 15 more worlds are expected to follow soon.
And the boom continues! Last weekend, the previous all-time record for concurrent active players was broken – this was announced by the proud developers on X. At times, more than 241,000 players were online in Old School RuneScape simultaneously.
The previous record was set during the “Leagues V: Raging Echoes” in November 2024, with over 231,000 concurrent active players at one point.
What came first: the hype or the streamers?
Once again, the question arises: What is behind the boom? We previously examined in the last report that there is no event happening this time that could have such a positive effect on player numbers. The recently released update Varlamore: The Final Dawn might play a part, but it went live only after the initial spark of the boom.
Another possible reason is currently being discussed on Reddit. LerntLesen writes there: “Streamers can really make or break games.” ICE-FlGHT agrees: “That’s the most truthful answer … it’s crazy how much they drive the market.”
And indeed, it can be observed on twitchtracker.com that Old School RuneScape has gained significant popularity on Twitch since April 2025 in terms of average viewers, peak viewers, number of streams, and hours watched.
In nearly all categories, the numbers have more than doubled – from about 4.32 million hours watched in April 2025 to 11.3 million hours watched in July 2025. A well-known content creator who has recently streamed Old School RuneScape several times is Thomas Chance “Sodapoppin” Morris, who many may know better through his WoW content.
What came first – the chicken or the egg? Some fans of Old School RuneScape admit that many streamers switched to OSRS in recent months precisely because the MMORPG was already experiencing a surge at that time. It is rather the great work of the developers over the past years that laid the foundation for the current success.
This assessment is only partially reflected in the Steam reviews of recent months. While Old School RuneScape has maintained a very positive rating of 82 percent over the entire period, the recent reviews have been significantly lower for nearly the entire year 2025 (currently about 70 percent as of August 4, 2025, 11:00 AM).
Many players who have invested hundreds of hours in the MMORPG criticize unjustified bans, technical issues, or the increased price for membership. The active community, the plethora of content, the nostalgic gaming experience, and the noticeable improvements of recent years receive praise.
Can streamers influence the success of a game? Definitely! This has been shown in recent years by Lost Ark and New World, both of which significantly benefited from the synergy of publisher Amazon Games and Twitch (owned by Amazon) at launch.
Twitch Drops here, streaming events there, the hype fueled by enthusiastic streamers everywhere – that’s how the two MMORPGs achieved two of the most successful launches in Steam history. Many more examples of games that have received a significant boost in player numbers through Twitch can be found in the following article: 7 games that became successful and big through Twitch.
