Server Population

[Kittra]

I'm a recently returned player on the Fenrir server and I noticed that during NA prime time the population is between 200-300... JP prime time is not much better at around 600-900.

Is this typical of all the servers currently active or are some better than others?

I had planned to server transfer anyway to get my old name back as during the Unicorn->Fenrir merge I lost my name to a mule character.

So my question is, what is the most populated server during NA prime time?

[lllen]

Today after maintenance, actually almost 2 hours after, we have 358 people, which considering the maint. probably knocked off the perpetually logged in mules and afk people, so this number is probably correct. During JP primetime we have sometimes a little over 1k, but at NA night it will be 500-600

[Kaisha]

Had 800 on Asura for the most part of EST afternoon after the maint.

[detlef]

On Valefor we are perhaps overly reliant on our army of afk mules to maintain appearances.

[Aselin]

I think most of the servers nowadays since FFXIV launched are averaging between 600 to 800 players on a weekday. On a weekend, many servers are averaging around 1000 to 1200 players.

On Bismarck, I've estimated that at most 77% drop in population since the server merge with Seraph in 2010 compared to 2013, post-FFXIV launch.

That's something to keep in mind.

[Dragoy]

I'm a recently returned player on the Fenrir server and I noticed that during NA prime time the population is between 200-300... JP prime time is not much better at around 600-900.

Have yet to see it go that low at times other than right before/after a maintenance.

A little before this post, it was at 545 (on Fenrir), which is probably the lowest I have ever seen while not around a maintenance. Earlier today it was at around the more usual 1400, around my afternoon (some 8-9 hours ago from this point in time). Perhaps people were just logging on for them points, perhaps not. (Hopefully the log-in campaigns will come to an end some time soon, or at least the collector's items taken down from the 2000 points category...)

A couple of big reasons come to mind: people doing end-gamey content are bored; many feel there is little point in doing the latest and “greatest” events, especially when the equipment seem to be out the window with 1-3 version updates. That, and there doesn't seem to be any real goal to aim for (yeah, the game in that sense was always about getting the gear to get the better gear, but that used to take some time (and no, it's not that I'm saying time-sinks are good, but yeah, I digress!)).

Their incredible stance regarding the Mythic weapon quest-line and such do not make them look good, either.


The other reason is likely that many are testing the waters of Eorzea. Probably... maybe?

From these two, the first reason is the more heavy one, I think. I personally haven't even bought Adoulin of the Seekers kind yet; I'm still having fun with my friends away from there, so obviously I'm not speaking of personal experiences.
However, I know quite a few people who always did the latest things and built the greatest things. When those people have their Content IDs inactive, it's serious, and the way the future content moves towards should probably be thought of quite carefully indeed (not that it isn't important other times). Those people I know, find X|V boring as well, so that's not where they are at.


Could also be them schools starting up around some parts of the world again, too. Or was that a month ago? Meh...

Something like that, anyblue. ^^;


Oh, and balcome weck! I might suggest waiting for a time to see if perhaps server merges are going to happen sometime soon, which probably will happen if them numbers stay so low. Then again, if it's the name only you want to do it for, it's probably best to do that before, than later. Not that there isn't a possibility of you losing it yet again due to the possible merge. You probably get what I'm trying to say.

Always a horrible thing to lose one's original name. :\

[Zumi]

Logged on FFXI today since FFXIV is going to have a 10 hour maintenance saw 808 people online during NA time.

14 is so good I rather play that now, probably take a break from 11 for awhile.

[Daemon]

Logged on FFXI today since FFXIV is going to have a 10 hour maintenance saw 808 people online during NA time.

14 is so good I rather play that now, probably take a break from 11 for awhile.

You ain't missin nuthin. Atleast people over on 14 are nice. Something 11 hasn't had in a long time. I guess its because you don't have max high levels with "if your not on par with my level you don't deserve to be in my presence" ego.

[Vivivivi]

It's probably a temporary trend to see numbers that low due to FFXIV's very successful relaunch recently. On Quetz 3-4 weeks ago normal NA prime time was around 1.2k easy, now it's sitting around 500. Weekends creep back up to 1.2k still when NA and JP schedules overlap.

It's typical when a major title with crossover appeal comes out that XI numbers drop, I recall this happening with Diabolos 3 and Skyrim, though not quite as drastic, probably since XIV has the post potential crossover appeal to XI fans. I think you'll see total players climb back up a good bit after the XIV free trial is over and the next XI version update is released.

[Siviard]

Currently on Shiva, there are 740 logged on at 11:20pm CST (9:20 PST) and of that 740, I would say at least 1/4 are mules, with another 1/4 just standing AFK. Eliminate those, that's 370 active players. You can't do much of anything with 370 active players online.

[Dragoy]

Was around 1600 today when I crawled in.

To put that into a context, it was about 2 hours before the Japanese midnight (around 4 p.m. in the Europe), and yeah, it does seem like it will go down quite a bit after that. I, too, think that it will likely pick up a bit again after a while (or I guess I might have said it already in my previous post... ehhh, I'll shut up now).

[Aselin]

I checked Bismarck population last night at three different times:

Around 6:00 PM PST (10:00 AM JST) - 650 to 670 players
Between 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM PST (12:00 PM to 2:00 PM JST) - Approx. 680 players
From 1:00 AM to 2:30 AM PST (5:00 PM to 6:30 PM JST) - 640 to 650 players

Approximate population back in March 2010 when we merged with Seraph:

At peak on a weekend - 3000 to 3200 players
At peak during a weekday - 2400 to 2600 players

When I returned to FFXI in April 2013, a little over 2000 players on a weekday.

So, as you can see, there was a sharp drop of players between the time Seekers of Adoulin was released (March 2013) to FFXIV ARR's release (August 27th.) and today.

[Soraishin]

I play on Bahamut, i've been keeping tabs on our server population since before the FF14 release date. It has declined drastically since then. This past weekend during peak NA hours the population never exceeded 2000, recently with the blazing buffalo bullcrap that came out during JP hours we've spiked to 1400 when it was around 400. But for the most part since FF14 release all servers have had a major decline. But i still think of my server as fortunate to even see 1k people during either NA or JP peak hours, even if it is still a small number compared to how it was a few months ago

[Daemon]

11 years. Most people already reached the end. Maybe didnt get everything they wanted but got enough to the point that the game became tiring.

All I see is DEV Team trying to implement stuff but people who are at the end of the ladder are speeding through it too fast.

That's the problem with power. The more you gain, the easier it gets, the faster people play.

Which is why I think such a massive boost given when SoA was released is doing more harm than good. This is why we have things that take 10 hours to do.

[Daemon]

Well thats just a silly thing to say isnt it. Most of the ppl in 14 are from Ffxi, they're the same people lol. A lot of them are currently giving ARR a test run, having already tossed their original 14 disc a year ago. So the 'nice people' in 14 are the same ppl who were in Xi. I think your statement was very sweeping and not true. Theres nice people and bad people in all games, and all walks of life too.
I think what you may be mistaking is that in ARR everyone is getting started, so they are being polite and friendly coz they need new friends to explore with and get help from. Might be a different story when everyone is a ARR vet and you will get the 'talk to the hand' blanking that sometimes happens with vets.
But yeah anyway Leviathan server 550-1150~ most days, including mules and army-of-one multiboxers.
FFxi and 14 are very different types of game, and many people will play them both. Its not all or nothing, especially as many people are already returning the Ffxi saying they like playing this game better.
People have been saying "Fffxi is dying" since 2005. Fact. Before TOAU came out everyone was wearing their Ohats and SH and grinding out lvls saying "this game was fun at first but its not gonna last." Then TOAU arrived and ppl shut up until 2008 when they were starting the "this game is dying" as they went for another imp-burn and yawned. Then WOTG came out and once again ppl stopped saying the game was dying. The problem today is that imho colonisation rieves which are central to the new expansion, are dull and cramped with the same NQ mobs packed into a small space, and hitting a stationary object as hard as you can before it ends, then jogging across the map to the next, repeat. This is imho what ppl are dulled out by. When Wotg ad Toau came out it was a lot more involving and interesting battlefields so ppl didn't get bored for a few years each time.
But the mechanics of FFxi are so different to ARR, a lot of ppl will stay in FFxi coz of the game engine which they have used and liked for a decade. But yeah server numbers are low now and we all expected that anyway tbh.

Yeah I know that lol. I'm just saying you have everybody low level, powerless, not enough knowledge of the game to merit them judges using statistics, and been in a game too long to complain about how unsatisfied they are for doing everything repeating things a million times to the point they feel miserable.

And speed passing all new content faster than what the DEVs can put out.

Meaning you don't have those people who think you are unworthy unless you are on the same level at end game with them.

It's when people start reaching the inevitable question of what happens when we reach the end is where problems happen lol.

That's when gaps happen, priorities between friends change and once people know the game well enough things become different.

We all enter this world innocent babies. It's until we start growing up and learning different things around different influences that we all change to be different than everyone else.

I'm sure DEV Team and community reps can show more attention to the playerbase because they know the answers. It's until everyone reaches the point where everyone becomes max level and waiting for DEVs to implement stuff is when people will have to wait for reps and Devs to fill each other in on feedback.

What's the new content?

I dunno yet we can't answer you. Even the DEVs won't tell us.

What's the new content why are you ignoring us?

I can't answer if I don't have it.

Lol.


As for FFXI VS FFXIV. It's too much for me personally. I like FFXI for its simplicity. Less confusion.

It's not that we don't have any nice people. We just don't have enough that this game has changed. Too many people won't care unless you go out of your way to care for them enough to make them feel like you deserve to be helped.

Too many people using others and have done things to others to the point people have to be cautious of who to do favors for.

It's like you could live in the most dangerous part of the neighborhood and even though you are the nicest person in the world, its the community around you that changes you to revolve around them.

It's also the fault of the way the game has been made. They make quests too hard almost impossible with great rewards.

Then they kill those by implementing something more powerful but many times easier to obtain, making the rewards from quests that were so hard worthless.

It's like implementing Delve rank weapons that are now irrelevant because auction house craft delve weapons are better. Uhhhhg.

I want gear that's not going to change every month.

And gear that's not going to pile up in my inventory that I can't toss because it only adds on to the many many many gear sets to render my job playable.

I mean its like they give us a spell or ability gimped and then add gear to make it work.

Why do we need to have so much gear to make things work when level progression should have accomplished this to begin with??

I need 500 enhancing to make Embrava work 100%...... Why not just make it work 100% to begin with? >.>

which means less gear to carry.

Then they wouldn't need you to acquire 500 enhancing to make Embrava work 100%.

Had the DEV Team not speed up level progression the game wouldn't have players reaching the inevitable question so fast.

Instead of adding more levels on top of each other to go higher. They could have made the game last longer keeping level 99 and just add more areas and events. For level 99 without adding more stats and higher level monsters and events that add more people than 18 people.

Entice us with new monsters, different graphics, different armors that look good. Different maps to explore, different craft armors, quests, missions, storylines.

The problem with today is they give us too much power to speed through content only to implement more gear and items.

When back in the day we use to travel, explore maps, find new areas, play for the storylines.

Other than town who hangs out on maps just to hangout??

So many times I use to park in heavens tower and go to bed while the music was playing.

Spending hours in sanctuary of Zitah farming goobue because the map was so peaceful.

Now these days it all about (please I'm tired of walking, can you put a waypoint so I can be lazy?)

Convenience is destroying the game.

[Daemon]

Sort of half-agree on this one. Waypoints are useful, I don't have a prob with them at all. Level-synch was a great idea too.
But the reason FFXI is in free-fall is the total erosion of 'goals' post-2010.
Goals being 'level up' and 'skill up' and 'obtain power weaps'. Those three things died in that order. You can sleepwalk to 99 now, in your lvl 1 pyjamas. You can use rings/earrings/food/martial master to cap your skills in a few days. And you can obtain the most powerful ffxi weaps in a day or two of SOA events or just buy one from the AH.
One example that always stays true in my mind. People used to do crafting while they were looking-for-party. I myself got fishing lvl 100 in 2004, clothcraft 70+ in 2005, and I had my 'invite to join party' flag up the entire time I was fishing/weaving. I got BLM75 that way, I would be catching fish or weaving, and get a /tell like "nobody else is LFP, do you want to party." As you know, blm didn't get invites back then, but if you had your flag up all day while fishing or clothcrafting or whatever, you got invites eventually. So many people did that and discovered they enjoyed weaving or fishing or w/e, they learned those trades while looking-for-party. Since nobody needs to LFP anymore, you would only do crafting inbetween rieves or delves or w/e, it would never be something you do for hours because you are waiting for xp invite.
That is relevant to declining server populations, because both xping and crafting were long-term goals, and because it took so long to get to lvl75 and cap your crafting, those goals were like a real incentive to log in tomorrow, and the next couple of years too lol. If you can get lvl99 in a day, wearing your new-adventurer pyjamas, and mega uber weaps & armors the next day, why the hell would you want to log in on day 3. You have no goals left. You might hang round for a few months smashing mobs up, but thats not really a goal is it. I still remember how thrilled I was when I got lvl 50 the first time, and like totally racing home from work to start LFP to get lvl 55. And being mega-happy when that pt-invite came through to me. It was a burning desire lol, a real goal. All this is gone now for new players. :(

What I mean by convenience killing the game. I don't mind way points. But then look at Adoulin. Instead of 1 or 2 way points, you have a way point everywhere.

In my opinion? Overboard.

Leveling in Abyssea was fine.

FC to 99? Overboard.

Delve rank items then Auction house craft items that replaced Delve rank items? Overboard.

But I agree with all of your posts Stompa.

SE makes it harder to earn Gil, then release Delve crafted weapons. Of course if the entire server is poor. These items will drop to low price because no one will give in to buying them for millions of Gil.

Then once something like Atinian staff cost 2mil or less then its like why put in the time and effort to earn Delve weapon and rank it to 15?

Hard to say but it just comes off as 2 things. Either Matsui was in panic mode and rushed the idea or it was done intentionally so players could speed past the game and quit so everyone will move on to 14.

[pretre]

look at the population numbers peeps how long they gunna keep this game up for

[Spellcaster]

And yet. some stated that ff14 wont affect ffxi at all, they are wrong

[Shirai]

And yet. some stated that ff14 wont affect ffxi at all, they are wrong

While I agree with you about the people saying XIV won't affect the XI population, FFXIV is not the biggest reason why FFXI's population is shrinking as it is.
If you take the time to actually read a few more topics on this forum you will see that the cause of the decline is far deeper rooted and diverse than the release of a new MMO.

If anything FFXIV gave people the last push they needed to quit.

[Damane]

While I agree with you about the people saying XIV won't affect the XI population, FFXIV is not the biggest reason why FFXI's population is shrinking as it is.
If you take the time to actually read a few more topics on this forum you will see that the cause of the decline is far deeper rooted and diverse than the release of a new MMO.

If anything FFXIV gave people the last push they needed to quit.

while some people did quit, alot of people I know are enjoying FFXIV because there is literally nothing left to do for them on FFXI, like for me. Capped on delve gear, caped on skirmish 2.0 gear in like what 2 days? there is nothing left to do. I just log in from time to time to use up my imps and rank up on coalitions thats it. I am waiting for the next version update on FFXI while playing XIV, but I have to say they hopefully put out some good content in the next 6 months.

[Afania]

And yet. some stated that ff14 wont affect ffxi at all, they are wrong

If this is pre-SoA FFXI, it won't be a 50% population drop.

Yeah it'd affect XI, but not nearly as bad if SE still keeps long term goal. Now they replace it with short term goals, who'd want to pay 12$ a month to grind gear only to get face slapped after 3 months?