The Country That Survived on RuneScape Gold

In 2017, thousands of people in Venezuela were paying their bills by killing green dragons in Old School RuneScape. Not for fun. The country's money was collapsing, and a week of farming gold could pay more than a month on minimum wage. This is their story. Empty shelves and street crime at home, the players who turned on them, the night the whole country went dark, and the war over the Revenant Caves. Then, years later, what happened when the dragons finally emptied. Chapters 0:00 Thursday, 7 March 2019 1:09 The dragon economy 4:09 The guide 6:33 Lights out 9:43 Reign of Terror 11:50 The war for the caves 14:43 Logged off 17:02 What they kept Sources Radio Ambulante, "A Million Coins" (2024) NPR Planet Money (21 July 2021) Kotaku, "The Runescape Players Who Farm Gold So They Don't Starve To Death" (20 Oct 2017) Polygon (10 Sep 2017) and LevelUp (10 Sep 2017) Caracas Chronicles, "The Gold Game" (21 Sep 2017) Versión Final, Maracaibo (14 Aug 2017), photo by Iván Ocando The Block (12 Dec 2019) Jagex news posts and Rules of RuneScape (2017 to 2026) Banco Central de Venezuela, IMF, R4V / UNHCR, NetBlocks via Bloomberg OSRS Wiki real-time prices WHSV (5 Jan 2026) Footage Gameplay clips used under fair use for commentary, credited on screen: Glink, "Runescape Players Are Hunting Down Venezuelans" (2017) The limit, Revenant Caves footage (Jan 2020) La RevelionRS, Revenant Caves footage (Sep 2020) News footage: Voice of America (public domain) Satellite imagery: NASA Aqua, NOAA / CIRA Photos: Wikimedia Commons (credited on screen) Usernames in game footage and posts have been hidden. Created using intellectual property belonging to Jagex Limited under the terms of Jagex's Fan Content Policy. This content is not endorsed by or affiliated with Jagex.