Methodologies

How aggrgtr collects, stores, summarizes, and displays the data behind each dashboard. This page is meant for RuneScape community members who want to understand what the numbers represent and how to replicate the metrics I've built.

aggrgtr is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Jagex Ltd. The site uses public data sources, public APIs, public web pages, and stored snapshots. Lodestone posts are excluded here because those are editorial entries rather than source methodology pages.

Player counts

RuneScape Population Tracker

Open dashboard

The population page is built around snapshots collected about every three minutes from the official RuneScape website player counts. The goal is to track current population counts and analyze larger historical patterns.

Where the live numbers come from

The live population tracker uses public numbers from official RuneScape pages. The combined RuneScape plus OSRS total comes from Jagex's public player-count script, following the approach documented by the RuneScape Wiki API page: player_count.js. That script returns the combined live count, not an RS3-only count. The OSRS total comes from the public player-count text on the official OSRS world-select page. These live population snapshots are collected about every 3 minutes. RS3 is calculated as combined RuneScape count minus OSRS count.

Steam counts

Live Steam player counts come from Steam current-player data for RuneScape titles, including RS3, OSRS, and Dragonwilds where shown. The Steam script runs about every 15 minutes, matching how often the Steam-published values usually refresh. Steam is shown separately because those players are already included in the official RuneScape player count totals.

KPI cards

The large cards at the top of the page are summary numbers calculated from collected population snapshots: newest observed count, recent averages, and historical peaks. They give a quick look at the numbers without having to read the chart.

Time-of-day chart

The time-of-day view groups stored snapshots by hour in Central time. It can compare today against all days from the last 30 days or 3 months, or against the same weekday over those same windows, so a Monday can be compared with recent Mondays instead of the whole week.

Historical data

aggrgtr started collecting population data on December 26, 2025 at a 3-minute snapshot interval. Longer history comes from publicly available archived population datasets, including misplaceditems.com, which goes back to February 2013, PlayerCount.dev to fill some gaps after MisplacedItems stopped updating, and the Wayback Machine for older pre-2013 data. Most historical data is at roughly a 15-minute interval, except for Wayback data, which captures a point in time.

  • Pre-2013 Wayback data should be treated carefully because many captures appear to fall between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Central, including many of the largest points, so they are closer to active-hour snapshots than full-day averages.
  • There are still historical gaps where no usable source coverage exists.

Long-range analysis

Trends and Year-over-Year

Open dashboard

The trends page shows RS3 and OSRS population history separately across comparable days, months, and years. It shows year-over-year movement, long-term direction, recent highs and lows, and RS3 hiscores activity.

Year-over-year views

The daily view compares the same calendar dates across years. The day-of-week view compares the same type of day, such as Monday to Monday. The monthly view compares monthly averages across years.

Trendlines

Population trendlines are fitted from the selected chart window. The page uses a regression model that can account for weekly rhythm and, on longer ranges, annual seasonality. Short windows still move quickly around updates, holidays, and Double XP, so the line should be read as directional, not definite.

Peaks and lows

Peaks are the highest stored counts in a selected range. Troughs are the lowest stored counts in a selected range, and they use an algorithm that removes fake lows due to game outages. These charts provide a way to see if the data are moving higher or lower at their highest and lowest points.

Hiscores context

The hiscores charts on this page use the same RS3 hiscores activity data as the Hiscores Tracker. They show weekly and monthly activity year over year, over comparable periods, instead of as one continuous line. Those rows count accounts that appear on the weekly or monthly XP-gain rankings after gaining at least 1,000 XP in the relevant period; they are not concurrent player counts.

  • Holiday events, Double XP, outages, and major updates can move totals quickly.
  • Population (engagement) and hiscores activity (total accounts) are related but not identical measurements.

Activity tracking

RS3 Hiscores Tracker

Open dashboard

The hiscores tracker pulls the last ranked account count from the public RS3 weekly and monthly hiscores pages over time. This page shows how many total active accounts appeared on the hiscores during the most recent weekly or monthly period.

Where the data comes from

The count comes from the public RS3 hiscores ranking pages for Overall XP. Weekly pages use the weekly hiscores view, monthly pages use the monthly hiscores view, and archived periods are requested by passing the relevant date into the public URL. The scraper finds the last page, checks the last ranked account on that page, and records that as the account count for the period. Accounts generally need at least 1,000 XP in the relevant period to appear on those weekly or monthly tables.

Weekly and monthly updates

Current-week snapshots are pulled about every 3 minutes. Monthly running figures refresh about every 15 minutes. Weekly figures have scheduled checks around the Tuesday reset, which is about 6 p.m. Central, although that time can fluctuate. There is also a validation check each week for the previous week's figure. Monthly figures are collected at the first of the month using a similar script to the weekly figures. When a week or month closes, the script re-pulls the completed period, validates it against the stored value, and updates it if Jagex has changed the count.

Chart views

The live chart shows the current running period. The 7-day and 30-day views show recent pulls from that running count. The all-time weekly and monthly views show the stored weekly and monthly series, including older historical rows imported from a Reddit post with data going back to 2014.

    Hiscores boundaries

    Maxed

    Open dashboard

    The Maxed page shows estimates for how many RS3 and OSRS accounts have reached major hiscores milestones: current max level, 99, 110, 120, and 200M XP.

    Where the data comes from

    The source is the public RS3 and OSRS hiscores. For OSRS, the script uses the public OSRS hiscores pages. For RS3, the script uses the public RS3 hiscores pages.

    Method

    The scripts look for the hiscores boundary where a milestone stops being true. For example, the 200M count for a skill is the last rank still showing 200M XP. The same idea is used for current max level, level 99, level 110, level 120, and the 200M XP cap.

    Members and non-members

    RS3 member and non-member counts are useful estimates, not official membership numbers. While someone is a RuneScape member, they are not removed from the hiscores. However, very low-level members may not appear if they are not ranked. OSRS does not show membership splits on this page.

    Views and timing

    The main charts use the latest completed collection run. The custom chart also lets a user choose latest run, average, or max for the selected period. Collection runs happen about every 6 hours. A scrape takes time to complete, so the newest page may represent the latest completed run rather than the exact current number.

    • The page is based on public hiscores visibility and can be affected by inactivity, bans, or source changes.

    World data

    OSRS World Population

    Open dashboard

    The OSRS Worlds page tracks public OSRS world population counts. This data is used in live tables, regional filters, activity summaries, and world history.

    Where the data comes from

    The source is the official OSRS world-select page. It publishes the current OSRS total and a public table of worlds with player count, region, world type, and activity label. The script pulls this about every 15 minutes.

    Region and type filters

    The page loads the latest world list and lets the browser filter by region and type. Type includes free-to-play and pay-to-play worlds, so the page can show where OSRS players are concentrated.

    Activity summaries

    Activity labels come from the world-select page. The page groups those labels to show where players are concentrated, such as trade worlds, minigames, PvM activities, skill-total worlds, and temporary game modes.

    World history

    When a world is selected, the page shows stored snapshots for that world and a chart for population movement over a time range.

    • Temporary events and leagues can dominate the totals while they are active.

    Jagex reports

    Player Support and Anti-Cheating

    Open dashboard

    The anti-cheat page organizes Jagex Player Support and Anti-Cheating Statistics into a monthly dashboard and table for OSRS and RS3.

    Where the data comes from

    The source is Jagex's public Player Support and Anti-Cheating Statistics article. Jagex publishes these figures on a monthly cadence, but not at a consistent day or time.

    Monthly metrics

    The page tracks macro bans, RWT bans, GP removed, chat-spam mutes, support queries, live chat queries, support-center views, report action messages, average response time, and ticket satisfaction where Jagex reports those fields.

    OSRS and RS3 comparisons

    Where Jagex reports both games, the page places OSRS and RS3 side by side. F2P and P2P splits are shown where they are available in the source data.

    Archive and timing

    A scheduled script checks for changes multiple times per day. When new figures are found, I save the source page to the Wayback Machine and use the Wayback snapshot as the source record for that month.

    • The page depends on Jagex reporting these numbers, and the cadence is unknown.
    • The shape of the data can change because Jagex may add or remove fields.
    • Missing values are not backfilled unless a public source supports it.

    Reference sites

    Similar RuneScape Player Count Sites

    These are the closest public RuneScape player-count sites I know of. The sites are ranked by my current grade.

    URL: https://osrsplayercount.com/

    The good

    For an OSRS player-count site, this is basically an A+. It preserved historical population data from misplaceditems.com before that data became unreliable, which was smart and useful. The site includes live OSRS counts, historical views, all worlds, all locations, world types, F2P and Members filtering, and world-level population views. I also like that it highlights peaks and updates the world data on the page. For what it is trying to do, it is cleverly done.

    The bad

    The filtering at the top is a little heavy, and the design has an older, very niche look. I would like to see activity context by world, and of course it would be stronger for my purposes if it also included RS3 numbers, but that is outside the site's OSRS focus.

    URL: https://playercount.dev/

    The good

    This site accurately tracks RuneScape player-count data at a 15-minute interval. Its downloadable RuneScape trend data goes back to October 2025. It gets bonus points for being simple, more bonus points for making the data downloadable, and additional credit for being one of the earliest sites to step up after misplaceditems.com stopped being reliable.

    The bad

    The visuals could be better. It seems to echo misplaceditems.com without quite landing the look.

    URL: https://rsplayercount.com/

    The good

    The site is simple to understand and has light and dark modes, clear KPIs, different granularity, and a very nice reactive tooltip. The RuneScape player counts on the page look accurate. It is probably the closest site other than PlayerCount.dev to the old style of MisplacedItems. It also has an about page that explains the hosting, privacy, and computations, which I like.

    The bad

    The main downside is that it only appears to have data going back to February 28, 2026. The backend records a snapshot about every 30 minutes, so it is taking two data points per hour. That is not bad, but it is a little stale compared with 15-minute trackers. The design is simple, which is good, but the text is a little small and the page could be a little more eye-catching without being flashy.

    URL: https://runepixels.com/

    The good

    I like what RunePixels is trying to do. The day-by-day comparison idea is useful, the current player count appears plausibly accurate, and the tooltip showing max and min values is a good idea. The data also appears to be on a roughly 15-minute interval, although that is a little hard to parse from the page. With a few modifications, this site could easily be an A.

    The bad

    The day selector can be misleading because the page preloaded the 16th versus the 17th, which is really yesterday versus today, not an apples-to-apples Sunday-versus-Sunday comparison. It likely should preload one day instead. If the goal is to lead people into comparing days, I would rather see weekday-to-weekday comparisons or default KPIs so the user does not have to imagine what the data are saying. Some filter options also appear to exist even when there is no data to filter to, such as October 2025. The live count looks delayed or confusing, and some people might see small bumps on this site and over-read what that means for player counts. Otherwise, this site is useful and accurate.

    URL: https://lawrune.com/

    The good

    This site appears to function mostly as a hardcore/group Ironman or Ironman tracker, not mostly as a player-count tracker. I like the visuals, the graphs are pleasing, and the chart options are good. The numbers look accurate, the player-count data appears to be on a 15-minute interval, and I like that the site says how many snapshots are stored. The peak player-count views for Dragonwilds, OSRS, RS3, and total players are useful, and there are some good KPI ideas here.

    The bad

    The page is too spread out. There is too much space in the boxes, too much scrolling, and some KPI text is redundant or not centered. The site also has ads, which I am not deducting for, but it is worth noting that this is a monetized site. Some explanations are missing or incomplete. The question-mark help icon does not explain anything, "recent activity" is not clearly defined, and the typical-activity chart does not seem to correlate clearly with current player counts. The data history also appears limited compared with older population sources. There are things I like here more than RunePixels, but overall RunePixels is more usable and has fewer errors, partly because there is less on RunePixels to critique. This could easily be a B+ or A site if it added more definition, used tighter design principles, and made the KPIs actually useful.

    URL: https://activeplayer.io/runescape/

    The good

    This page is more polished than several other player-count sites. The graphics look nice, and because Steam player counts do correlate with total online activity, the page can still give some directionality.

    The bad

    This appears to be Steam tracking only, not the actual live player counts from the game. There are a lot of ads, and there is a lot of extra detail that is not really player-count analysis. I would not rely on this data for anything serious. You can go to Steam and get the same underlying data.

    URL: https://tracker.gg/population/steam/1343400

    The good

    This is a Steam-only tracker. The page includes Steam metrics such as 24-hour peak, all-time peak, monthly averages, weekday averages, and how long it has tracked the population.

    The bad

    This is not an official RuneScape live player count. It only tracks Steam players, so it is limited. The page also includes premium/ad framing.

    URL: https://playercount.gg/runescape

    The good

    It is Steam-only data. The monthly table is easy to scan, and it has a nice layout.

    The bad

    It is Steam-only data and not much deeper than that.

    URL: https://www.ely.gg/rs_playercounts

    The good

    I really like the look of this page. It is clean and easy to understand, and the monthly presentation is useful for a higher-level view. It goes back to February 2013, which makes me think it likely used misplaceditems.com data as a historical source.

    The bad

    The problem is that the page is by month, not 15-minute intervals, so it is not useful for live player-count analysis. More importantly, it stopped working in July 2025. If it still worked, I would probably give it a flat B. Because it does not work anymore, I have to give it an F.

    URL: https://www.misplaceditems.com/rs_tools/graph/

    The good

    This was the best RuneScape tracking site for over a decade. It tracked RS3 and OSRS population data in 15-minute intervals. The website itself was not aesthetically pleasing, but bonus points for being simple.

    The bad

    It had downtime and gaps in the data, sometimes small and sometimes months long. It used a Perl script to pull data and may not have been a truly cloud-based pull. It went down sometime in October 2025, and as of May 17, 2026 (I will update this if that changes), the site is generating fake data using the meme seed 42069. Because of that, I have to give it an F.

    URL: https://showmyitems.com/runescape-player-counts

    The good

    This page tracks only Steam population. It gives current Steam players, 24-hour peak, all-time peak, and Steam rank in a simple layout. I like the layout and the color scheme.

    The bad

    It is Steam-only data, and it is choked with ads.

    URL: https://www.scape-xp.com/runescape-players-online-tracker.html

    The good

    There is not much useful here for RuneScape player-count analysis.

    The bad

    There is no meaningful filtering, and it badly overestimates the player count. It claimed RuneScape 3 had around 135,000 players online, which is clearly wrong. There is not much more to say than that. This is an F.

    URL: https://playercounter.com/runescape

    The good

    There is an attempt to put RuneScape player counts into tables, but that is about as generous as I can be.

    The bad

    The page reported a current live player count around 35,000, and I am not sure what that number is based on. It is inaccurate. Some numbers may be based on Steam, some may be based on something else, but the source is not clear. The page is mostly tables and does not seem very useful. Overall, this is an F because it is inaccurate and very misleading.

    URL: https://mmo-population.com/

    The good

    Nothing here is useful for RuneScape player-count analysis. I had to create a new grade to rate this as low as possible.

    The bad

    This site uses estimations based on signals like social media, Reddit, or other indirect sources. It does not use the actual live data points from the OSRS website or the main RuneScape website. For RuneScape, this is the worst kind of site to use for information.

    URL: https://igitems.com/runescape/charts

    The good

    There is a lot of information on the page, but the player-count section appears to be Steam data.

    The bad

    This site looks like it is also a gold trading site and appears to engage in real-world trading. Because of that, this gets an FFFF.

    URL: https://www.playerauctions.com/player-count/runescape/

    The good

    It is Steam data, and it separates that from Google Trends.

    The bad

    This is a real-world gold trading site, so it gets an FFFF.