Bronzeman won a majority in OSRS and lost anyway
Old School RuneScape's Bronzeman poll got more yes votes than no votes and still failed, because the game requires a 70 percent supermajority to change anything. Jagex's own post-poll note, published 21 August 2026, confirms the majority, confirms the shortfall, and opened an in-game survey the same day to find out what went wrong.
What the studio said it did
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Result | Majority yes, below the 70% threshold |
| Threshold | 70% supermajority, the standing OSRS rule |
| Studio's advance knowledge | Jagex says it can see results before they are public, and prepared for this outcome |
| Immediate action | In-game survey, live from 11:15 UTC on 21 August |
| Proposed change | An optional question in future polls asking why a player voted as they did |
| Next step | An update once the studio is confident what, if anything, should happen |
Our take: what it means for players
We are going to defend the threshold, and then criticise how it was used.
A 70 percent bar is the single most valuable thing Old School RuneScape has. It is the reason this game still feels like a world its players own rather than a product shipped at them, and it is the reason a studio cannot quietly reshape it in a direction the community hates. A mode that more than half of voters wanted and fewer than seven in ten did, and Jagex publishes no percentage, only "a majority" and the shortfall, is exactly the case the bar exists for. It held. Good.
Where we would push back is the design of the vote, not its outcome. Jagex said it saw the result coming and had prepared for it, and that it now wants to ask people why they voted. Asking why after the fact is a survey; asking why on the ballot is data. The studio's own note admits the improved polling system makes this easy, which raises the obvious question of why a proposal this contested went out without it. A failed poll costs the community months and costs the studio the work, and both are avoidable when the disagreement is legible in advance.
The tone deserves credit. Jagex asks players not to turn on each other and frames the question as where did we go wrong, which is the right target: the mode did not fail because players voted badly, it failed because the pitch did not answer their objections.
For anyone tracking the discussion, the studio points at the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums and its Discord, and at the Old School RuneScape Wiki for the reference material.
What's next
Nothing is dated. The survey ran from 11:15 UTC on 21 August; Jagex said it would return with an update once it knew what should happen, and as of writing it has not, so the calendar carries nothing for Bronzeman and will not until there is a day to carry.
Common questions
Did the OSRS Bronzeman poll pass?
No. Jagex says a majority of players voted yes, but the poll fell short of the 70 percent supermajority Old School RuneScape requires for a change to go ahead. That means the game mode does not ship.
What is Jagex doing after the failed Bronzeman poll?
It opened an in-game survey from 11:15 UTC on 21 August, the day of the result, to capture why people voted the way they did, and said it will return with an update once it understands what, if anything, should happen next.
Will future OSRS polls ask why people voted?
Jagex says it hopes to add an optional question to future polls asking for the reason behind a vote, and that its improved polling system makes that data easier to process.
Written by 0hp from the publisher's own announcement, linked above, and every specific in it was checked against that page by a second pass before it published. Independent, and not affiliated with the publisher. Dates are announced or labelled as estimates. How this site is written, and how to correct it.
