RuneScape ® similar games & best alternatives

RuneScape ® - runescape_1.avif
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RuneScape ® - runescape_6.avif

RuneScape ®

2020

Should you play it?

RuneScape is a high fantasy open world MMORPG. Explore an ever changing and evolving living world where new challenges, skills, and quests await. Featuring unprecedented player freedom, you choose how to play, adventure, and grow.

What works

  • Vast and rich content with quests and skills
  • Strong community and social features
  • Freedom and autonomy in gameplay
  • Engaging and rewarding progression
  • Nostalgic and long-term appeal

Things to keep in mind

  • Grind-heavy and time-consuming
  • Presence of microtransactions and pay-to-win concerns
  • Outdated graphics and ui complexity
  • Addictive nature leading to excessive play
  • Membership paywall limits full content access

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Old School RuneScape

  • Summoners War: Chronicles

  • Onmyoji

  • The Elder Scrolls® Online

  • FINAL FANTASY XIV Online

  • Black Desert

Less idle-friendly

Games that feels like RuneScape ® but with less of an idle filler feel

  • Borderlands 2

  • SMITE®

  • Grounded 2

  • FINAL FANTASY® XI: Ultimate Collection Seekers Edition

  • Guild Wars 2®

  • RIFT

Choose your own criteria ->

Similarity map

How to compare these games

Compare nearby games

Each card is a nearby game on the similarity map, compared with RuneScape ®. Swipe sideways to move between games. Titles already listed in What to play next are left out.

  • Cover and title: open that game’s page.
  • What works / keep in mind: the same highlights as the desktop comparison panel.
  • Bars: the main motivational differences versus this game.
How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Swipe to compare nearby games with RuneScape ®. These titles are not in What to play next.

RuneScape ®: Less representative of its motivational profile, with noticeable differences. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Cooperation, Fellowship, Intimacy, Leadership. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Idle, Status, Competition.

Last update: 21/08/2026