Microtransactions

Not to be confused with Real-world trading.

"MTX" redirects here. For the glitch item, see Mtx pet.

"MTS" redirects here. For the Archaeology tool, see Mattock of Time and Space.

Microtransactions (abbreviated as MTX) are a form of monetisation model where players can purchase virtual goods in a game. In RuneScape, this refers to anything that players can purchase with real-world currency that is not a membership subscription. Players cannot spend more than £1,000 a week or £5,000 a month on microtransactions in RuneScape.

Types of microtransactions

• Bonds, which can be sold on the Grand Exchange for coins after buying with real money, traded, or converted to membership subscription (including Premier Membership).
• Radiant Stars can be purchased with real money to gain bonus experience in a skill of choice.
• Special offers outside of the game, such as Battleworn Steel Armour, and Steel Series Starter Pack.
• RuneCoins, which are used to acquire items in Marketplace, and other seasonal promotions.
• Solomon's General Store, which sells cosmetics items like titles and pets, legendary pets which have in-game benefits, extra bank space, and more.

Removed

These previously existed in RuneScape, but were removed or replaced.

• Battle pass systems
  • RunePass, introduced in 2018, reworked into Yak Track in 2019.
  • Yak Track, introduced in 2019, replaced by Hero Pass.
  • Hero Pass, introduced in 2023, discontinued a month later due to controversy.
• Squeal of Fortune, introduced on 28 February 2012, replaced by Treasure Hunter on 4 February 2014.
• Treasure Hunter, where players can spend keys to get randomised rewards (similar to loot boxes).
  • Oddments, which can be used to acquire items in the Marketplace Oddments section that give in-game benefits, and a rotating stock of cosmetics.
• Some special offers outside of the game, such as Prime Gaming.

Development history

2012: The introduction of Squeal of Fortune and Solomon's Store

See also: Squeal of Fortune#Controversies and Solomon's General Store#Controversy

The interface for Squeal of Fortune

The first implementation of microtransactions in RuneScape came in the form of purchasable "spins" for the Squeal of Fortune on 2 April 2012, just over a month after it was released. It provided players daily "spins" on a wheel to receive a magnitude of prizes, including experience lamps and coins.

Jagex added the ability to purchase spins with real-world currency, with transactions being performed through the RuneScape website. They could be bought in bulk - ranging from 10 spins at $4.99 USD to 200 spins at $99.99 USD. There was significant controversy with Squeal of Fortune when the ability to purchase spins was introduced, causing players to accuse Jagex of breaking their own rules on real-world trading, which they previously introduced with the reasoning:

“	We want RuneScape to be a game where everyone has the same chance regardless of their wealth in real-life.	”
— Jagex, Real World Trading Rule Added

Just three months later, on 17 July, Jagex introduced the Solomon's General Store to the game, along with the currency it utilised, RuneCoins. Solomon's Store was significantly more cosmetic-focused than the Squeal of Fortune, but players that wanted to buy from the store had to either earn RuneCoins through playing the Squeal of Fortune or purchasing them with real-world currency. There was less controversy behind the introduction of the store than there was for the Squeal of Fortune, though some were concerned about the increasing number of microtransactions being added to the game.

2013: The introduction of Bonds

See also: Bond#Controversy

On 25 September 2013, Jagex introduced bonds to RuneScape as a way to pay for account benefits such as membership using in-game currency. Bonds can be traded on the Grand Exchange, but are initially obtained by players who had purchased them using real-world currency.

The introduction of bonds received a spout of controversy, with players accusing Jagex of destructing the integrity of the game because of the fact that what bonds achieve are an "official" form of real-world trading.

“

Bonds were conceived as a way to cripple gold farmers, whose illicit real world trading was damaging the game economy and disrupting gameplay.

”

2014: The introduction of Treasure Hunter

The Treasure Hunter interface

On 4 February 2014, Treasure Hunter was added to RuneScape as a replacement to the Squeal of Fortune. In a similar fashion to its predecessor, it allowed players to have a random chance at gaining an assortment of items. Spins were replaced with keys, and remained purchasable with real-world currency. There was no shortage of complaints about the activity, which began to ramp up promotions and become more experience and skilling focused in terms of rewards.

A month later, the wealth evaluator was added to RuneScape, allowing players to gain an insight into the wealth that they have in-game. The evaluator requires RuneCoins to purchase.

2016–2018: RuneMetrics and statement on monetisation

See also: Treasure Hunter#Controversies

On 22 February 2016, Jagex introduced RuneMetrics, allowing players to see stats about their gameplay, including their experience rates per hour and their gold earned per hour. To access in-depth statistics about their gameplay, players must purchase a subscription to RuneMetrics Pro which is not included in their normal membership subscription, requiring RuneCoins.

On 29 March, Jagex announced changes to the Solomon's Store which meant that some items would only become purchasable using RuneCoins. The most notable items affected by this change were in-game services, rather than cosmetics, such as bank boosters, additional action bars, and keepsake keys.

In-game events started utilising RuneCoins more, allowing players to get rewards quicker or complete the events quicker by using them. These notably include the seasonal events such as Summer Beach Party and Spring Fayre. In November, time-limited events were introduced to the game, along with event daily limit extenders costing between 60 and 195 RuneCoins. In later TLEs, players could purchase event currency directly using RuneCoins.

In 2017, Treasure Hunter came under significant fire for the increase in promotions - most notably the Prize Pool promotion. The promotion allowed players to risk losing prizes that they have won on Treasure Hunter to gain a chance at getting better ones. A significant number of players heavily criticised the gambling aspect of the promotion and called for Jagex to remove it.

Despite acknowledging the issues with the Prize Pool promotion, promotions continued heavily for the next few days until Jagex finally released a statement on monetisation on 23 October.

“	While MTX in RuneScape is essential to maintaining our development teams and the content they produce, we believe it can be refined (and the harsher edges smoothed out) without significant dents to income. Rest assured, we certainly won't be pushing it any harder.	”
— Mod Balance

In the statement, Jagex said that the promotion would never return, and less promotions occurred on Treasure Hunter (including the temporary removal of 2nd Chance Tuesday) for the remainder of the year.

2018: RunePass

See also: RunePass#Controversy

The interface for tasks in RunePass

On 2 July 2018, Jagex released a new event called RunePass which was inspired by games using a similar battle pass model such as Fortnite. It featured two prize tracks - a free track and a paid track - and a number of rewards for progressing through the tiers within the tracks. Only four items in total could be obtained by players on the free track, while those who purchased the paid track for 400 RuneCoins received prizes in every tier.

RunePass received some criticism from players who expressed their dislike at the growing number of monetisation models in RuneScape, and the fact that the pass is inspired by free-to-play games, while RuneScape is a subscription-based game.

“	(...)this is a test to see if we can pull back from other things like TH [Treasure Hunter].	”
— Mod Osborne

2019: UK Parliament inquiry

On 26 March 2019, it was announced that a portable version of Vic the trader would be made available for purchase from 23 April until 26 May. By redeeming one bond, players could summon the portable trader one time for a period of one hour.

“	We've wanted to do more things with bonds for a while now. Last year we spent a lot of time talking to players about the monetisation in the game particularly off the back of some of the things that happened with Treasure Hunter. We wanted to explore alternatives and we tried various experiments, but this year we want to have a focus on things that players are comfortable with - service level use for bonds. If they're successful, we will introduce them as permanent options. We've become very dependent on Treasure Hunter and players have had concerns about that and we want to deal with it. This is one of the first steps we're taking.	”
— Jagex

On 2 April, Jagex gave oral evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, one of the select committees of the UK Parliament, on their investigation into "immersive and addictive technologies". During the session, they revealed that on average players spend "no more than £45 a year" on microtransactions, and that there is a spending cap of £1,000 a week or £5,000 a month.

A few months later, on 27 August, it was announced that Balthazar's Big Raffle would be returning to the game. This time, players can pay Balthazar one bond to receive all of the raffle tickets that they missed by not logging in, and to have the tickets that they may miss in future held onto for later retrieval.

2020–2023: Yak Track and Hero Pass

See also: Hero Pass#Controversy

At the end of 2019, Jagex introduced Yak Track, a recurring battle pass system that would reoccur four times a year, beginning with Count Yakula's Yak Track. With the exception of the last Yak Track event, each had 50 tiers that players could unlock. Each tier provided both cosmetic and in-game skilling items, and tiers could be progressed by completing specific tasks in RuneScape similar to the Challenge System.

Players could unlock some rewards without spending any money, but Yak Track events also included a Premium Pass which could be bought using 2 bonds or an active Premier Club membership. The Premium Pass provided access to an additional set of rewards for each tier. The final Yak Track event was Forinthry Frontier in 2023. It was replaced by Hero Pass, a reworked battle pass system, in September that year.

Hero Pass was billed as a "major feature update" and "content update" on numerous occasions leading up to its release, generating disappointment when it was revealed to be a new microtransaction system. As part of the same update, the Challenge System was changed to remove daily challenges, preventing players from earning weekly rewards or Treasure Hunter keys through normal gameplay. This new battle pass system allowed players to earn buffs that could be used to enhance experience or even make some content easier. Due to controversy surrounding the update, Hero Pass was discontinued on 6 October 2023, though the event continued to run until its scheduled end date with some changes such as the content buffs being disabled.

2024–2025: Survey and experiments on microtransactions

Main article: 2025 microtransactions proposal

In-game prompt for the MTX experiments

In 2024, Jagex ran a survey on microtransactions, asking questions to players about what they think of the current experience and whether there are any other systems that they could introduce to the game instead. 42% of players who completed the survey said that MTX currently detracts from their experience, and 63% of ex-players said they may return to RuneScape if the issues with XP-related MTX are addressed.

On 25 June 2025, it was announced in a video and news post that Jagex would be experimenting with several changes to RuneScape in an attempt to reduce the negative effect that the existing microtransaction systems have on the game. The experiments took place over the months of July, August, and September, with each experiment running for a few weeks.

“	Our MTX approach is harming RuneScape and it's time that we took action. RuneScape 3 is almost 25 years old, and we wholeheartedly believe that this game has many more years ahead of it. If we want to go from where we are today where, bluntly, our population isn't really growing, to decades of a booming community, then it's time we take some big swings, even when they aren't easy or simple. This isn't a fluffy thing to say. It's our mission statement. We love this game and it deserves to thrive. The era of a tainted RuneScape 3 is coming to an end.	”
— Mod North, CEO

The experiments that Jagex ran were:

• July: Temporarily remove Treasure Hunter and replace it with bundles of large prismatic fallen stars and small knowledge bombs (1 bundle per day available in the Marketplace)
• August: Disable XP-related items during the Double XP event (including protean items and training dummies)
• September: Make a large number of new and previously discontinued cosmetic overrides available for purchase

2025-2026: Microtransactions poll

Main article: 2025 microtransactions proposal

Jagex collected feedback on the experiments and used it to inform a subsequent proposal in October to remove Treasure Hunter, remove the ability to purchase gameplay progression items using real-world currency, and introduce the direct sale of bonus experience instead. The proposal was put to a poll, and will pass if 100,000 players vote "yes".

When the poll closed on 12 November 2025, it had reached 124,985 votes which resulted in the release of this statement by Jagex.

“	You have spoken! With a staggering 124,985 votes in our recent vote, Treasure Hunter will leave RuneScape for good on January 19th 2026. On this day, we will also be removing 225 Direct XP and Skilling related items from sale. There will be no more purchasable sources of Direct XP or items that disrupt the core gameplay and the player economy. In addition, we'll be investing heavily in a year-long Integrity Roadmap that targets the very heart of longstanding issues within the game – from UI, to visuals, to balance, and much more. We are so delighted you believe in this future as much as we do. Here's what it all means.	”
— A New Era For RuneScape Begins January 19 2026

On the same day the poll ended, the official announcement stated that starting 19 January 2026, all forms of microtransactions (including 225 items, such as direct experience and skilling-related items) would removed from sale on Treasure Hunter. This also included a vision for the future which will include a "Integrity Roadmap" that will address things like "visual identity across the game world and the player avatar, UI, combat, dailyscape, early and mid-game experiences, and a whole lot more."

As for items that will be removed from the game in January 2027, these items will still be usable for a period of time after they are removed, but the team encourages players to use them in 2026. The items may actually take the form of a conversion, rebalance or change in functionality. Regardless of the final outcome, players should use them as soon as possible, because even if players keep them, their effectiveness will be far less than it is currently.

In other games

While Jagex has said on a number of occasions that they would not introduce microtransactions to Old School RuneScape, bonds do exist in the game which function the same as their RuneScape counterpart. On 1 July 2019, a news post was released which reiterated the stance that microtransactions would not come to Old School RuneScape, but that Jagex would be looking to explore further partnerships (besides existing partnerships with Twitch) to provide early access to cosmetics in the game.