Old School RuneScape Expands Server Capacity Amid Record Player Surge

Jagex has added 43 new worlds across several regions in Old School RuneScape and plans to continue adding more, including 20 in the US next week.

The free-to-play MMORPG is experiencing a major surge in popularity, during what the team behind the game calls its “Platinum Age” — leading to a sharp rise in demand for game worlds. However, adding worlds is not as simple as flipping a switch as it involves complex infrastructure that must scale carefully to avoid lag and instability.

To meet this growing demand, the company is upgrading its infrastructure and shifting to cloud-hosted worlds, starting with AWS-hosted servers on the US East Coast. This move allows greater flexibility, reduces physical hardware constraints, and brings the possibility of regional servers in underserved areas like South America and Southeast Asia closer to reality.

RuneScape’s servers (“worlds”) run on virtual machines within data centers, and high player loads can strain both hardware and software performance. The team said they closely monitor tick processing and constantly optimize top resource-heavy scripts and systems.