MMO player makes history with 19,000-hour grind maxing four of the toughest characters in the genre

gamesradar.com:

MMO players are no stranger to intense grinds, but few games make you grind like Old School RuneScape (OSRS). Where most MMOs offer jobs and classes, OSRS boils down to 23 universal combat and non-combat skills which can take hundreds of hours apiece. These skills are exponentially harder to train when you're playing one of the game's limited ironman accounts since you won't be able to trade other players or access the market, meaning you have to obtain all your resources yourself the old-fashioned way.

So you can see why it took one player over 19,000 hours across 8 years to reach max level on four different ironmen. 

Devious (opens in new tab), a longtime OSRS player as well as a shooter pro who's competed in games like PUBG and Warzone, recently maxed his hardcore group ironman. He's previously maxed a normal ironman, an ultimate ironman and a hardcore ironman. Group ironmen can trade with a few friends as long as they're part of the same group, ultimate ironmen can't even use a bank and have to carry all their items, and hardcore ironmen lose their status if they die a single time. With this, Devious is the first recorded player to reach total level 2,277, with level 99 in all 23 skills, on all four account types. In total, this took him approximately 19,128 hours over eight and a half years. 

Most OSRS players don't max a normal, unrestricted account or play as an ironman, so maxing four ironmen with unique limitations is a monumental feat. I also can't think of an official game mode in any other MMO that imposes a comparable gameplay-warping rule set. (If you know of one, please tell me!) It's hard to overstate the game knowledge and patience that goes into playing an OSRS ironman, especially a hardcore or