In September 2023, the eccentric, larger-than-life folks cast for Season 10 of reality TV show 90 Day Fiancé were revealed. Among them was now-30-year-old Kentucky resident Clayton, matched with 26-year-old Anali of Peru. While it wasn't immediately obvious, it's since become abundantly clear that Clayton is a hardcore Old School RuneScape player – a 20,000-hour type of hardcore player. The MMO's community pounced on the news back in November, and after a new episode which aired on January 7, Clayton's story has once again become a legendary meme factory.
Clayton, it turns out, is not just any old OSRS player. He's also named Clayton in-game, and is best known as the rank-one Magic user across the entire MMO. This means he was the first to reach 200 million experience in the skill – roughly 187 million XP more than what you need to actually hit the max level of 99. He also commands several other 200 million XP records, including rank nine in Farming and rank 90 in Cooking. Just getting 99 in every skill in OSRS is a massive achievement and time sink. Having multiple skills at 200 million XP takes rare dedication.
To the surprise of no one, TLC has taken this opportunity to play up just about every basement-dwelling, Doritos-munching, sunlight-avoiding gamer stereotype you can think of. "Is Clayton Spending Too Much Time on the Computer?!" asks one panicked video on the show's official YouTube channel. "Anali Gives Clayton Blue Balls!" exclaims another classy clip. I especially like this highlight about Clayton's two guinea pigs, but only because it has footage of guinea pigs in it – a welcome distraction.
The tone isn't far off the out-of-touch thinking that, rather than a diverse art and the biggest form of media on the planet, video games are little loser baby toys for a small group of little loser babies. That said, I'll be damned if Clayton ain't making it easy for TLC.
I know this is reality TV and therefore dramatized or staged to draw laughs and cringe, and I can only assume that Clayton was prepared for the inevitable jeering, but wow. At one point, Clayton relaxes somberly as a red on-screen banner notes he's gone "59 days without sex." In one clip, Clayton explains: "I'm pretty much just a hermit in my room. I'm working from home and gaming all the time. I've spent a lot of time on the computer. Video games have always been part of my life.
"The game that I've been addicted to since I was an early teenager, I have, like, over 20,000 hours on that game if not more," he continues, as barely blurred footage of OSRS plays in the background. "I quit counting a long time ago. For about half my life, I've spent so much time on it ... I think it's just the fact that, given my work schedule and general habits, I don't really have too much of a social life."
Just to really set the vibe here, a recent clip is titled "Clayton Overshares About His Sex(less) Life," in which our stalwart hero – in front of his TV fiancé, his friend Cameron and his partner, and a waitress along for the ride – orders a virgin drink "because I don't drink alcohol, so I gotta get the virgin version, because I'm effectively living as a virgin because we haven't been having sex recently." Are you getting the point, reader?
OSRS player on 90 Day Fiance this season from r/2007scape
The OSRS community, meanwhile, is lapping this up like homemade ice cream.
"Not sure which episode it is, but TLC put pewpew noises over him playing at some point. Had me dead lmao," writes Reddit user et60000.
"Honestly, as a real 90/reality TV trash connoisseur, Clayton doesn't even register as being 'fucked up' and seems like a fairly well-adjusted guy," says 2b_CordPhelps in Clayton's defense. "There have been some awkward encounters but they were also clear producer plants."
"Combining my two niche interests, OSRS and 90 Day. Sending [good luck to] our brother in arms on the show," says Blue_Nalgene_.
Little-Tumbleweed-32 rightly points out that "the weirdest part is him staring his mate dead in the face on his main monitor, as if that’s something gamers do when they’re on a call."
"His friend with the eyebrows because he knows production is making them make it even dumber than it already is," observes FreeSquirkJuice, and if you think I'm letting that username go without explaining the historically significant OSRS sq'irkin' saga, you've got another thing coming.
The beautiful thing, as plenty of commenters have pointed out, is that trash TV like this is utterly perfect second-monitor fodder to watch while grinding an AFK skill in OSRS. Clayton and Anali may not be a match made in heaven, but this show and this MMO most certainly are.
In more wholesome news: one OSRS player spent 149 hours stealing over 14,000 fruit just to get a priceless raccoon.
