Changes for New Accounts

Creating New Accounts

From now on, when you create a new account, you will be asked to supply your email address rather than a username. This email address will be requested on the RuneScape login screen whenever you attempt to log in. For existing accounts, please continue to use your current username to log in.

By introducing an email login for new accounts, we are able to greatly improve your security. Since your email address is not visible in-game, it becomes much harder for anyone to hijack your account. Existing players can get the same level of security by creating a character name (if they have not done so before) and submitting their email address in the lobby.

The change also allows us to improve several areas of our customer support, as most password requests for email-registered accounts can be answered quickly if you have used your correct email address.

Note: If you cannot supply an email address, you will not be able to create a new account.

Character Names

Over the coming weeks, we're planning to free up millions of unused character names (previously known as display names) for you to use. A character name is considered unused if it fulfills ALL of the following criteria:

• It hasn’t been logged into in the last year
• It hasn’t been used to purchase any membership
• It has no RuneScape skills of level 30 or above

Note: If you are a free player, you will retain your character name if you have logged into your account in the past year, or if you have any skills over level 30.

You will still be able to use your account if your character name has been reclaimed. An interface will pop up and ask you for a character name when you log in.

Unused character names will become available as we identify them, and we'll keep you up-to-date as the process goes on. In the meantime, if you've had your eye on a specific character name, it may be worth finding out if it's available!