Jagex plans to reach up to 18 million past and present RuneScape players with Dragonwilds' console release

Jagex is using its instantly-recognizable MMO brand to reach players on console, but not with the mainline RuneScape experience.

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RuneScape is one of the older MMORPGs that still has a healthy fanbase--Old School RuneScape is apparently doing so well that it has broken nearly all of Jagex's internal metrics. The studio is now expanding to console with a new RuneScape game, Dragonwilds, but it's a spin-off game and not the original RuneScape experience. Jagex is instead choosing to reach PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2 players with a separate game.

Jagex sees big opportunity for Dragonwilds. Not only is it a survival sim that mirrors popular games like Valheim, but it's also a RuneScape game, and the studio hopes that this will be enough to attract past RS players. In fact, Jagex thinks there are around 18 million console gamers who have played RuneScape in the past, so there's quite a bit of potential for adoption.

In a recent interview with The Games Business, Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy outlined the synergy between the traditional RS game and Dragonwilds:

"We're going to bring it to new platforms where historically we've never been, and therefore it will be hard to get off the ground.

"We've done some of the numbers on there, we think there's about 6 million of our historical players on each of our main platforms, ie Xbox and PlayStation, and then about twice that on Switch, that are already on console.

"So when we've been speaking with the platforms, I've been saying 'look, you don't have to create an audience for us.' We have one. They're just there. Let's bring a game to them that they're going to recognize and love the IP of."

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What platforms will RuneScape Dragonwilds be released on and when is the launch date?

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Is RuneScape Dragonwilds the same as the mainline RuneScape or Old School RuneScape?

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Will Dragonwilds be available on Nintendo Switch 2 and current Switch models?

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Is RuneScape Dragonwilds already playable before its full release?

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RuneScape Dragonwilds will release on September 15, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch 2, as well as PC. It's currently available in early access right now on Steam.