Reignited Flopped Outside RuneScape Community | Data Analysis

[u/Pedim_RS]

As I've been discussing Reignited on this sub over the past few days, one thing keeps coming up: the assumption that the mode would somehow "save" RS3 and bring in enough new players to justify the risks of alienating the existing player base.

But where is the actual evidence for that assumption? In this post, I want to look at some publicly available data suggesting that Reignited performed well below what you would expect from a relaunch supposedly aimed at expanding RuneScape's audience, particularly beyond its existing community. Btw, I do believe that's why Jagex end up cancelling the thing.

Let's establish one important distinction first: attracting a few OSRS players to RS3 would not necessarily represent a net gain in subscribers for Jagex. Those players are already part of the RuneScape ecosystem as costumers. To justify the opportunity cost and the risk of damaging trust with the existing player base, Reignited needed to attract new players from outside the RuneScape community and convert at least some of them into long-term subscribers.

So, how much interest did it actually generate?

YouTube

Let's start with the trailers. YouTube isn't a perfect measure of a game's success, but it gives us a useful indication of how much attention a release generates, especially when we compare similar promotional materials across multiple channels.

• The RuneScape Reignited trailer received 203k views on the official channel and 124k on IGN's channel. On the official channel, the video received 2,000 likes and 1,500 dislikes. On IGN, it received 681 likes and 94 dislikes, indicating extremely low engagement.
• For comparison, the Dragonwilds launch trailer received 1.1 million views on the official channel, 685k on IGN, and 127k on the PlayStation channel. The announcement of Dragonwilds' major update, Dowdun Reach, received 2.4 million views.
• "Dragonwilds is not an MMO." Fair enough. WoW: Forever received 4.3 million views on its gameplay trailer and 4.7 million on its cinematic trailer on the official channel. On IGN, it received 453k views.
• Six years ago, the New World trailer received 17 million views on its official channel and 1.7 million across IGN's channels, back when YouTube counted a view only after 15–30 seconds of watch time, unlike today's metric, which counts a view as soon as a video starts playing. New World peaked at over 913,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch in October 2021. By September 2026, it was averaging roughly 450 concurrent Steam players and will be shut down. In other words, even a spectacular launch doesn't guarantee that the initial hype will last.
• Reignited's YouTube metrics suggest that it was a flop even in terms of launch visibility. The supposed RuneScape "relaunch" failed to break out of its own bubble.

Google Trends

If you think the laughably low view counts for a supposed major release aren't enough, let's look at Google Trends, some good old big data. Let's compare RuneScape Reignited, Dragonwilds, Valheim and WoW: Forever, all releases of a similar magnitude (I'm not including GTA VI here). Included OSRS as a baseline.

See that barely visible blue line? Well, that's Reignited for you.

The same trend holds when you switch the filter to YouTube Search or News Search, and the gap becomes even more pronounced when you compare the games over the same period following their respective announcement dates. Reignited doesn't even come close to reaching a tenth of the attention the other releases received. What's more, the controversy surrounding Reignited should have boosted its Google Trends numbers. Yet the data suggests that the discussion remained largely confined to our own community, with very little impact beyond it.

Reddit and social media in general

Since we don't have objective data to work with, we have to rely on a qualitative assessment of the available evidence. On r/MMORPG and r/Games, some posts about Reignited did generate discussion, and there are indeed dozens of players saying they would give the game a try because of Reignited. As I've said, I'm not denying that the mode has some appeal. My point is that this initial interest does not guarantee either long-term engagement or that any success would offset the damage to Jagex's relationship with its existing playerbase, given how poorly Reignited was handled in terms of its impact on current players. We're talking about a game with around 20k concurrent players and approximately 200k subscribers, according to Jagex, which is hardly an insignificant playerbase, despite what some people suggest.

That said, compare Reignited's reception with the impact of WoW Forever or even New World six years ago on the same subreddit, and the difference is noticeable. Reignited simply didn't generate the same level of attention. WoW Forever, by contrast, has been a successful launch, with its massive engagement across social media, YouTube, Twitch, and Google Trends reflecting that. On Twitter/X, Reignited's reach also appears noticeably smaller than that of the other releases being compared, despite all the controversy surrounding it.

At best, Reignited might have achieved a fraction of WoW Forever's reach, all at the cost of alienating the existing playerbase.

"Relaunch"

Jagex marketed Reignited as the relaunch of RS3. For an announcement of that scale, however, it was a massive flop in terms of its reach beyond the RuneScape community. The mode clearly has some appeal, and I believe a version of FSW could be developed in the future in collaboration with the community, rebuilding trust rather than creating a rift between Jagex and its existing players.

Objectively speaking, though, Reignited failed to generate the kind of broader attention you'd expect from a "relaunch" of this scale. And even if it had attracted a significant number of newcomers, which is a big if given the numbers, that would only have been the first step. Keeping those newcomers engaged while dealing with growing divisions within the community would have been difficult. And honestly, Jagex's track record gives little reason to believe the company would have handled that challenge well. Its history has shown time and again how poorly it responds to conflict and player dissatisfaction, especially when it chooses to ignore its playerbase's concerns.

What do you think? Let's discuss :)

[u/Doomchan]

I agree that reach would have been a major choke point for this. Jagex SUCKS at advertising, and the people this appeals to need to be advertised to hard so they actually know it exists

[u/MeatloverBizza → u/Doomchan]

Irl I’ve only met one person after 2010 that has heard of RuneScape at all. I’ve only seen a couple ads for the game during typical browsing. Good advertising can go a long way

[u/Doomchan → u/MeatloverBizza]

They need to advertise like gacha games do. Blast that shit out everywhere. Make it so people who would never even consider playing video games at all at least know what Runescape is because they can’t avoid hearing about it

[u/AzraelGrim → u/Doomchan]

They have since Day 1 so its not a surprise. I've said for almost 2 decades now that "Free to Play" could be labelled "The Largest Free Trial with no Time Limit" and it'd be more correct and get far more attention.

[u/Jerowi]

It's impossible to know the reach reignited would have had without it happening. Any discussion outside the RuneScape community is something though because RuneScape does not come up and even a small number is more than zero.

[u/Pedim_RS → u/Jerowi]

I agree that it's impossible to know for sure. The data wasn't promising, though, especially considering the risks involved. I'm pretty sure that if Reignited had received HUGE attention, Jagex would have tried to move forward with it, reworking the model to try to please both sides.

[u/Sophiaphage]

This analysis is good for what's available. Someone else had pointed these data out to me already, which concur with your points.

I'd point out also to the people who were saying 'Jagex needed to do this action to bring people back in and make more money' that that logic also assumes Jagex is able to calculate that the demand for this reset just was not there, it wouldn't sustain, and it risked alienating a current sure-thing over a gamble.

The death of Reignited as a datapoint also directionally supports your analysis.

[u/Emotional-Station153]

I appreciate this post. People tried to defend reignited based on a ton of misinformation, and it needs to be corrected one at a time.

[u/GoblinDoct0r]

Hey, nice to finally see some numbers. I just want to add that the x announcement of Reignited is the most popular post the official Runescape account has ever made on the platform with 2x the amount of likes compared to the next post and 2.3 million views.

[u/TeppyTelios]

Thanks for the analysis Claude!

[u/Pedim_RS → u/TeppyTelios]

Hey! I'm not a native English speaker. I did the research myself, but used an LLM to help with translation and grammar. Sorry if some parts sound a bit artificial. You can generate a similar graph at https://trends.google.com.br/trends/ btw

[u/Pedim_RS → u/[deleted]]

Well, that's just rude lol. I do speak English and regularly do PvM in RS3 with English-speaking teams. Nothing wrong with using an LLM to clean up my grammar or help me express specific ideas, though ;P

[u/glytchypoo → u/[deleted]]

learn manners, try again

[u/gamezrule → u/[deleted]]

Don’t be an ass or go away

[u/DancingDumpling]

If you search for runescape (the game) and compare it to other games (I did OSRS, Valheim & Dragonwilds) it compares really quite favourably, it maintained strong interest compared to the rest and surpassed it at its peak

[u/Pedim_RS → u/DancingDumpling]

t's true, but "RuneScape" is a pretty broad term, especially when it encompasses OSRS, RS3, Dragonwilds, and even the RS4 announcement.

I agree that RuneScape is a strong IP, though

[u/DancingDumpling → u/Pedim_RS]

It's Runescape (Videogame) which is RS3 seeing as it differentiates that and Oldschool Runescape (videogame) and Runescape:Dragonwilds (videogame)

[u/Tall-One-2270 → u/DancingDumpling]

Only facts I like get upvoted facts that go against what I like I dislike

[u/AppropriateBirdBoy]

Doing the real work here. Anecdotally, without data, I don't feel Reignited is focused enough on new players. New players number one concern: is the game worth my time? Reignited, on its own, doesn't even answer this.

Before announcement, they had no way to measure potential interest and criticism of Reignited, which could explain why they went forward to begin with. I believe they didn't do their due diligence on potential criticism. Some very obvious problems arise with even the slightest scrutiny, top of mind is paying an extra sub for it.

[u/dark1859 → u/[deleted]]

It's quite a leap to say that,

[u/Pedim_RS → u/[deleted]]

That's not what I'm saying. I do think Reignited had some appeal and could've gained traction at launch. My point is that the interest we can actually observe was pretty limited compared to the risk of alienating the existing playerbase. IMO, it would've needed to attract WAY more attention to justify going ahead with the launch despite the backlash from veteran players.

I'm all for future Fresh Start modes. I just think Jagex should work with the community to make them happen, rather than damage player trust in the process.

[u/Pedim_RS → u/[deleted]]

Jagex said it wouldn't introduce separate Fresh Start worlds without discussing the idea with the community and building it together. My veteran account has basically accomplished everything in the game, so I could've been a target audience for Reignited. Still, the way it was announced and handled felt really disrespectful.

Trust and listening to the playerbase are a huge part of OSRS's success. IMO, RS3's decline shows what can happen when that relationship breaks down. Even if Reignited had lost momentum over time, we could've ended up with two smaller, fractured communities, both hurt by the lack of trust

[u/Netheri → u/[deleted]]

To be fair that would also be an equally awful outcome for the new players, as any that kept playing until endgame wouldn't be able to do any group content with vet accounts.

You might reach the point in the account where you want to do Croesus, BM/Yaka or even Amascut and unless Reiginited was a massive success that doubled the current player counts you'd have an awful time finding people to do that content with given Reignited not being able to play with Vet accounts kind of cuts both ways. Not to mention the added friction of finding people in discord and constantly having to verify they're the same kind of account.

[u/Dethykins]

Regardless of the hypothetical reach Reignited would have had, average player retention for mmos past the first month is around 25%. So if 25% of the people it brought in was more than the people who quit playing in the same time frame that would be growth, which is something the game has shown it's not capable of on it's own (which is the case for basically every mmo the older they get).

Inversely, by announcing the mode, driving interest for it, and then cancelling it after 12 days because of the tantrum thrown by people who the content wasn't for, has done tremendous damage to the trust that those people would've had in the company.

[u/Pedim_RS → u/Dethykins]

Overall, I agree that Reignited was delivered poorly - hurting both sides, veterans and potential new players