This game is honestly too expensive for it to grow is the real problem. Asking us to pay more is arrogant behavior.

Here are the paywalls a new account deals with (we can assume a new player too). I am in a large clan that deals with new players trying to learn the game so have a real good idea on their spending habits.

$15 - Members - First month to try members. (bonds explained in-depth below)

$100 - VIP Members

$60 TH Keys (assume one 200 key package)

$60 Runecoins for bank boosters (explained in-depth below)

Auras - Loyalty Points time-gated. (clearly too lazy to fix)

$235 for the first year. Just one character! Absolute minimum of

+$30 remainder of bank boosters on sale (January 2026.)

+$56 Large bank booster (January 2027).

I read BBC news from time to time. I know in the UK there are a lot of people right now struggling with "Heat or Eat" dilemma. If Jagex is going to continue to be ignorant about these matters, RS, as a whole, is gonna die.

I wonder how many of Jagex's own underpaid staff can afford starting a new character up.

Bonds GP Farming It takes a considerable amount of time for 90% of the playerbase to pay members for them. When F2P typically become a member they "forget" it is only 14 days and from enjoying the game are stuck in F2P spending a month or more to smith rune items to buy a bond again. We've had a few players in my clan leave due to burnout from this.

Bank Boosters Usually new players don't start managing their bank accounts until after purchasing their first few. They think it is a great deal and after doing enough questing, and skilling end up will filled bank spaces quicker than expected. By this time we usually encourage the new players to hold off until January when they are half off.

Loyalty Points Not even going to discuss, loyalty CLEARLY means nothing here.

Treasure Hunter $60 is an amount of money a lot of players consider "a lot" and really feel burned when they don't get the cosmetic or pets they want. It really sucks seeing how upset they are, my clan stands by "hard lesson learned" and they need to just grow and develop their gameplay here with it.

I've seen more new players quit the game out of anger over TH than anything else. It used to be PvP lures, but those have become super rare since the wilderness is no longer PvP territory by default.