To put that in perspective, the runescape mobile gold subreddit has 331,000 subscribers. Settled's subscriber count has more than tripled--from 52,000 to 183,000--in 3 months and change. The hook rate on Swampletics would embarrass The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I talk no hyperbole once I say everybody playing Old School Runescape today has heard or watched of Swampletics.
As a regular viewer of this series, it's not hard to see why it's caught on. Settled has produced a custom game mode that is both staggeringly restrictive and exceptionally inventive.
A small milestone for the average player is an enormous achievement for Settled, and watching him experiment, bet, and grind his way into success is utterly attractive, like a combination of Mythbusters and Survivorman filtered through among the earliest and most nostalgic MMOs around.
"My brother brought me to old school runescape accounts once I was five, and I did not understand what I was doing initially whatsoever," Settled says. "However, I grew to appreciate it, I don't know why. It's a really satisfying game. You just want to create your personality the best it can be, and that mindset has remained with me since those days. That's what's so unique about Runescape. Following the years it's been outside, there are ways to make it exciting and fresh, and there is something valuable about that I feel. If you wanted to, you can play Runescape for a life and still have things to do.
