When Jagex announced the release of OSRS, I thought it would be convenient to plot the active populations on each game version together so anyone interested can analyze the data.

How it works

Every five minutes, a perl script contacts the front page of Runescape and scrapes the displayed number of online players. This is the total number of players in both versions of the game.

A second request scrapes the number of online OSRS players. The difference between the OSRS and total players is the number of EOC players

The data is stored in a database for later retrieval and analysis.

Darkscape is not included in these numbers. Since there wasn't a huge uptick in total population when Darkscape was released, I know that its numbers are not included on the RS home page. Darkscapes population will be included if Jagex ever begins displaying the total number of players.

Other modes within the game, such as ironman and deadman are included in totals because they aren't independent versions of the game. They will be lumped in with the game version they are availiable in.