Jagex sees fourth successive year of growth as income rises 9.3% YoY

Jagex has finished its 2018/19 fiscal year with a “record-breaking performance”, including a 9.3 per cent rise in income year-on-year, boosting revenue to £92.8 million and making it the company’s fourth successive year of growth.

Jagex – which also saw its profits before tax grow to £46.8 million, up 3.8 per cent on last year – attributes the success in part to the RuneScape franchise securing its highest ever paid membership total, and Old School RuneScape’s launch on iOS and Android, which now boasts more than five million installs.

2018 saw Jagex grow its team by over 100 people – including several new senior appointments – while investment in research and development grew by 69 per cent.

“2018 was Jagex’s fourth successive year of significant growth, with our highest ever active players, revenues and profitability, all while increasing inward investment to power future growth,” said Phil Mansell, Jagex CEO. “The successful release of Old School RuneScape on mobile is a major step in our company transformation plan; expanding our expertise to mobile, becoming a pioneer in cross-platform play, and increasing the reach of the RuneScape IP. 2018 also showcased our approach to ‘living games’ – sustaining deep long-term engagement by working closely with our player communities.

“This lets us accelerate Jagex’s transformation; we have strengthened our leadership team and will continue to build on the company’s talent base, we are funding new game development, building out our third-party live game publishing, investing in massive publishing platform upgrades, whilst continuing to expand our live RuneScape games.”

“Jagex has delivered multiple years of sustained and meaningful growth through its pioneering leadership in the live game sector,” added Lisa Pan, chairman of Jagex. “Now in its fourth year of successive growth, Jagex has increased revenues by 46.3% since 2015 to deliver this best year on record. Jagex is today a powerhouse in its field; the team’s ability to focus and deliver on Jagex’s living games philosophy is driving success and it continues to grow a business that can attract the best partners and a place where the very best talent wants to work.”

Looking ahead, the Jagex Partners initiative hopes to “deliver live game publishing and operational services tailored specifically to the needs of third-party studios”.

Jagex developers routinely visit MCV, most recently to talk about “the challenges of art direction”.