Interesting Metrics on Runescape Markets

Hi Guys,

I had some extra time before the weekend approaches and thought I'd pay the Sythe community a visit with some insider info to the RS markets.

Runescape or Old School RS?

Turns out that RS2007 was not a market to ignore. When Jagex released an old school version of RS 2007, we weren't sure if this was going to cannabalize markets, or create a new one.

Turns out, more or less, a new market was created. When it first launched, yes we saw a sharp decline for RS3, but as time went on that stabilized to where things are now.

General Metrics
- RS2007 is roughly double the size of RS3.
- RS3 is currently larger than the WoW market, although this is changing as WoW has been experiencing a steady influx of increased order volume and users. (Launch day of WoD saw a 90% drop in sales for WoW, which if you've seen instagram, is easy to understand why. Logging out of WoW during the first few days was a trap!).

- RS2007 has been experiencing a steady increase in orders this year, with its peak being Week 34 (3rd week of August). The increase run rate for RS2007 however has stopped, which from we can tell is primarily due a) school starting up again (seasonality does indeed affect gaming markets), b) Archeage (how many of you are playing) and c) Warlords being released.

- Activity in account trade for RS3 is about 20% higher than RS2007 (although the latter is still the larger market).

Seller Regions
Runescape is one of our more diverse markets on PlayerAuctions, with the majority coming from Western Countries, though they remain closely related in terms of breakdown:

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What about Buyer Demographics?

For different product categories, its pretty much similar across the board:

How old are RS2007 Account Users?:
18 - 24: 87%
25 - 34: 9%
35+: 3.5%

What are some affinity interests of RS2007 Gold Users?:
Judging from the above "youth pool" of RS traders, some of the catalogued interests of these users are not surprising... although, more of you should be reading the news

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Do girls play Runescape 3?

You bet! But only about 5% of the total visitors to PA markets are gals. But they do spend almost double the amount of time browsing than the boys.

Item Sales

Red Party Hat = $3,143.84

Annnnnnd.... it's time to go to happy hour.

Hope you guys found this interesting

 

Interesting read thanks for putting this together.

One thing i am interested in is the popularity of each of your payment methods, if that is something you're willing to share!

Also, has the overall RuneScape market (both games together) seen an increase or decrease over the years?

 

Definitely was interesting, I'm also assuming that the over 35 category is mostly parents buying gold for a child. The real number is probably even lower.

I'd like to see more posts like this one.

 

Interesting way to look at things and how rs is doing. Makes me want to start playing 07 =P

 

Interesting read, thx for it. Would be cool to post another 1 in the couple of months time to see how the different stats have changed

 

Interesting alright, was a good rundown on how the markets doing. Would be good to see how they do over the christmas periods and an update sometime next year.

 

that actually is pretty interesting

 

Well considering you need to be 18 to use the payment options available, and nearly everyone on runescape lies about their age, a market analysis would be wrong indefinitely.

 

Interested to hear that too

 

Hey mate, thanks for posting this. It's interesting to hear that RS2007 has so much more volume than RS3. I love how Canada is such a serious chunk of the Runescape market, I wonder how much of it has to do with Arcus / myself.

I'd be very interesting in seeing some statistics on new games which are performing strongly. By giving us some market data on emerging games, we could look at filling the need on PA.

 

thanks for the great topic

 

I can't help but say that this isn't a good sign for Jagex. I know people have been saying it for years but that should be worrying.

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing it with us

 

Interesting info - not very surprising though. Is there anything in particular you attribute to 2007 having so much more volume than RS3?

 

It is a good question, but realistically I was hoping that you guys would have more insight to that being that you guys are in the RS environments day to day.

Perhaps it is nostalgia for old RS? Perhaps old RS allows you to do more? I have no idea... perhaps you guys have ideas?

Your and Arcus do indeed a large volume together. You guys could likely share figures together, and then come up with a rough estimate as to the total size of the RS market.

As for emerging games, if other people were interested in this, I could do that. I figured this was predominantly an RS market, but yea, if you guys are interested in other games I could definitely do so.

There is a large emerging market on PA that is beginning to take off which not many people know about yet, but we are still getting our ducks in a row before we will be ready to produce a report for you guys.

Since I like Sythe, I'd be happy to give you guys an "early" preview

Can do

RS's overall history is storied and it would take quite a bit of time to put together a historical analysis for you guys.

Obviously it all started when Jagex removed trade restrictions and re-opened the Wilds.

One the whole RS has experienced ebbs and flows. "Runescape" by itself was experiencing a steady decline for a time, but when RS 2007 launched, it made the entierty of the "RS market" larger.

At first, RS2007 cannabalized traffic/users from RS3, but over time, RS2007 continued to grow in its own right, whereas RS 3 has reached its plateau and hasn't really seen any significant growth/decline.

I can put together some excel trends for you guys.

 

suprised at the age demographic, I thought everyone who played RS in 2005-2007 would mean a slightly older audience than 18-25, at least not 87%

I'm not quite following the WoW stat, how come the WoD introduction seen a 90% drop?

 

Interesting data! Thanks for sharing.

I'm most impressed by the fact that a red phat is over $3k USD.

 

the canada market is alot larger than i thought, but it may just be r2 as he pointed out.

 

Repping the UK

 

Never thought Canada would be such a large part of the market. I guess Arcus & R2P really did distort it.