Old School RuneScape is not the only version of RuneScape to exist. There’s also RuneScape 3, which now uses certain world numbers (a majority between 1 – 200). Between worlds 201-299, that’s up for debate. But they don’t appear to be used in RS3 (as of this writing) and might be used for testing new features, or maybe they’re just not part of OSRS as a legacy feature. Either way, as a result of all this setup, OSRS has been allocated the worlds from 300- 500. And these worlds only allow access to OSRS servers. RuneScape Classic also used to utilize servers from worlds 1 to 100(or maybe up to 199?) but that game mode was retired and is now shut down.
Why Are There So Many Worlds in OSRS?
There are a ton of different worlds in OSRS since each world represents a specific server, and each server can allow a maximum of 2,000 players on it. Since there are hundreds of thousands of people who play OSRS (maybe millions?), multiple servers in multiple locations and countries are required to reduce latency issues – and to help people play without much lag or waiting in a queue. Many worlds have also been given specific designations and specific uses, which help players to congregate and do specific activities together. For example, World 306 is used for Barbarian Assault and is very busy, while other worlds are entirely empty at Barbarian Assault. Another example would be PvP worlds, which are worlds where PvP activities can occur in areas that are normally safe zones. Ultimately, such a large game with such a big playerbase requires hundreds of game worlds. And a starting point of world 301 helps separate the OSRS servers from other versions of the game.
