RuneScape

We rate RuneScape C tier (6.0 out of 10). This is the modern game that players call RuneScape 3, and it is 9/10 for solo play but only 2/10 in PvP. We think it is the most improved MMORPG of 2026 and still the hardest one to recommend to a friend: Jagex removed the Treasure Hunter loot boxes on Jan 19, 2026 and rebuilt melee, ranged and magic on Mar 2, 2026, yet its best month on Steam this year peaked at only 5,092 players (August, read Nov 12, 2026). TheLazyPeon put it in his "positive" tier, the B row, in his MMORPG Tier List 2026 (Dec 11, 2025). We sit one tier lower, because a game with no living PvP and a membership that rose to $14.99 a month cannot average a B by our rule. Leave PvP out and the other five scores average 6.8.

We think the Agility rework that Jagex placed in its January 2027 story arc will not be live by Mar 31, 2027. The Jan 19, 2026 roadmap release promised the player avatar refresh for April, and Jagex's own news list dates that update to Jul 8, 2026.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Apr 2027.

28:12 What is live now: a 48-hour Double XP allowance runs until Nov 16, 2026, the duo boss fight against the Ghrazi Blood Knights got a solo mode on Nov 9, and a late-game rebalance lands on Nov 23, all per Jagex's Nov 9, 2026 post. The next big date is Dec 2, 2026, when a remade early game and an Adventure Guide arrive with 10 days of free membership for new and lapsed characters (Dec 2 to Dec 12). The game is free to play on Steam and Jagex's own launcher, with an optional membership: a point-and-click sandbox MMORPG with no classes, where one character trains every skill.

Scores

Pros and cons

Pros

• Treasure Hunter is gone for good: Jagex removed it after over 120,000 votes, along with 225 XP and skilling items.
• Official plugins now sit inside the game client. Quest Helper, Tile Markers and Menu Entry Swapper came first, and 13 more arrived on Nov 5, 2026, True Tile among them.
• Bosses can be learned one mechanic at a time, as the Arch-Glacor fight that opens this page shows.
• Ironman mode removes trading and the shop from the game entirely.
• Skills run past 99, to 110 or 120, with new training methods at the top instead of one grind repeated.
• A dated plan exists: three story arcs for 2027, a sequel to Dragon Slayer in January and a raid later in the year, on Jagex's 2027 roadmap.

Cons

• PvP is not a reason to install it. There is no ranked play, and the Wilderness is safe unless you opt in.
• Membership costs $14.99 a month since Mar 10, 2026, and the 12-month plan is $131.88.
• Jagex still lists click box fixes, camera fixes and movement that stops after using the inventory as work for 2027.
• Few people are arriving. Steam's recent reviews were Mixed, 60% positive of 148, when we read the store page on Nov 12, 2026.
• Trust was shaken in October: Jagex announced a fresh-economy mode, RuneScape Reignited, and canceled it 12 days later.

PvP: 2/10

20:52 RuneScape has almost no PvP, and Jagex built it that way. In TheLazyPeon's July 2025 hardcore Ironman run he walked into the Wilderness for a prayer altar and found it "so weird" that PvP there is disabled by default. In the cons list of the same video he names Wilderness PvP and "a whole list of mini games" as dead content.

Nothing in the Jagex roadmaps we read for 2026 and 2027 adds a PvP mode, so the score rests on what exists: an opt-in zone and old minigames with nobody in them. It is not a 1 because the systems still work for two players who agree to fight. A ranked arena or a seasonal PvP world would raise it.

PvE: 7/10

Bossing is the endgame, and the ladder is long. The Arch-Glacor fight in the opening moment is the best design idea here: the boss starts with no mechanics, and the player switches them on one at a time as they learn.

The newest fight shows the limit. The Ghrazi Blood Knights, in the Havenhythe expansion, needed exactly two players until Jagex added a solo mode on Nov 9, 2026. We think that is the pattern: content is tuned so one player can do it, which is why this is a 7 and not a 9. The Temple of Ah Za Rhoon raid and a reworked grouping system are both 2027 items. If the raid ships in 2027 and needs a real team, this goes to 8.

Solo play: 9/10

30:13 This is the score that matters. TheLazyPeon, who plays Old School RuneScape daily, said the questing here is "arguably some of the best in the MMO genre" and takes Old School's "to another level".

His reason for quitting that run was the lack of a quest helper. That reason is gone: plugins launched in the official client in October 2026 and a third batch is due Nov 19. Jagex's Jan 19, 2026 roadmap also named the daily-task grind and Auras for overhaul. It is not a 10 because the first hours still confuse returning players until the Dec 2 remake proves itself.

Combat: 6/10

26:42 Combat is where creators disagree most, and the dates explain it. In July 2025 TheLazyPeon clicked to move, watched his character stand still, and said he would "rather try and play a number game with my microwave" than use this combat system.

31:40 Then Jagex rebuilt the three original styles on Mar 2, 2026. In TheoryWise's Sep 7, 2026 video, after a long group Ironman run, he says nearly all the animations were reworked and that it "really does feel different" from a year earlier. He later puts melee, ranged and magic in his S tier.

We land between them at 6. But combat still runs on RuneScape's slow server tick, and the click and movement faults TheLazyPeon filmed are on Jagex's own to-do list for 2027. When those ship, we would give it a 7.

Fair pricing: 6/10

17:56 The game is free to start. Membership is $14.99 a month or $131.88 for 12 months (prices from Mar 10, 2026). Leftover microtransaction items are removed from accounts on Nov 23, 2026.

Three things keep this from an 8. Jagex sells bonds at $9.99, and its own page says they trade "through the Grand Exchange for in-game wealth": that is gold for money, and gold buys gear. WillE said in his Mar 6, 2026 video that extra bank slots still cost real money, as far as he knew. And the price rose in the same year the shop shrank. Ironman accounts escape the first problem. Selling bonds for membership time only would lift this to 8.

Population: 6/10

Steam Charts' highest monthly peak for 2026 is 5,092 players in August (read Nov 12, 2026), the month Leagues II ran from Aug 10. That is a 5 by our rule. We add 1 because most players use Jagex's launcher, which no public counter measures, and Jagex publishes no figure for this game.

The trend is flat to down: October peaked at 3,144, and 2,800 were on Steam when we read it. The number cannot see launcher players, and it cannot tell a player from an idle client.

What creators say

36:09 TheLazyPeon ended his Jul 23, 2025 review by saying that removing the whole cash shop would not save the game, and that Jagex should "start working on Runescape 4". By Jul 5, 2026 he said its future "looks positive for the first time in years". We agree with the second view more than the first: the 2026 fixes went at his own list of cons.

6:31 He got his wish. At RuneFest on Oct 3, 2026, Jagex showed a fourth RuneScape MMO in Unreal Engine, "still early in development" and unnamed in its press release. In TheLazyPeon's RuneFest recap (Oct 16, 2026, sponsored by Jagex), Jagex's Mod North tells him it "will not replace any of the games". We think that is true for years, and that it still caps this game's growth: new players now have a reason to wait.

WillE (Mar 6, 2026) said he could recommend the game to "pretty much any type of player", with the warning that the roadmap's delivery is "a big if". TheoryWise (Sep 7, 2026) called it "on the cusp of greatness" while saying it is not on Old School's level.

Who should play it, and who should not

Play it if you like long solo goals, quests with real stories, or a second-monitor game. Skip it if you want PvP or a busy group finder.

Old School RuneScape is the nearest alternative and the bigger game, with simpler combat and a far larger crowd. Guild Wars 2 suits players who want PvP and no monthly fee. Final Fantasy XIV is the better pick for story played with matchmade groups.

Sources

• Steam Charts: RuneScape, read Nov 12, 2026
• RuneScape on Steam, read Nov 12, 2026
• Jagex: An Ambitious New Era Dawns For RuneScape, Jan 19, 2026
• Jagex: Treasure Hunter to be removed January 19th, Nov 12, 2025
• Jagex press release on the combat overhaul, Mar 2, 2026
• Jagex: RuneFest 2026 press release, Oct 5, 2026
• Jagex: Leagues II: Equilibrium, Aug 10, 2026
• Jagex news list
• RuneScape: Membership and Bonds Price Change
• RuneScape: Bonds
• RuneScape: Reignited, An Update From Mod Ryan, Oct 15, 2026
• RuneScape: 2027 Roadmap, Oct 3, 2026
• RuneScape: The Week Ahead, Nov 9, 2026
• RuneScape: Official Plugins, Batch 2, Nov 5, 2026
• TheLazyPeon: RuneScape 3 In 2025 "Is It Worth Playing?", Jul 23, 2025
• TheLazyPeon: The Future Of Runescape Is INSANE, RuneFest 2026 Recap, Oct 16, 2026
• TheLazyPeon: The Absolute State Of MMOs In 2026, Jul 5, 2026
• TheLazyPeon: MMORPG Tier List 2026, Dec 11, 2025
• TheoryWise: I Spent 1000 Hours Playing RuneScape 3... As a New Player, Sep 7, 2026
• WillE: Is RuneScape 3 FINALLY Worth Trying In 2026?, Mar 6, 2026