I hope you are very much enjoying the new content! I personally started a new character, so it will take me some time to reach back to endgame!
First off a number of things are being discussed here.
Profit/Success
Retention
and
Activity.
So lets restate the points.
1. I was speaking in terms of profit.
2. When speaking in terms of profit I used the words "personally" and "doubt." The first indicates opinion, the second indicates ... as per its definition "a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction."
3. The numbers that I have are 100% factual from actual sources.
So if we avoid all numbers, and the history of both games, the costs to develop them, as well as their subscription prices, and just about everything number related, outside of the "20 million accounts" FFXIV has, and FFXI saying "half a million subscribers" as a possible peak, then sure, one could assume FFXIV Is more profitable. But those arent the only facts.
FFXIV doesnt release subscription numbers no, but I never gave any numbers for subscriptions.
It is very easy to estimate "active" players. Here is one example:
https://ffxivcensus.com/
The other 2 numbers “20 million” and “200,000” one is directly stated by Square-Enix. The second is pulled from other similar sources.
200,000 was also extremely generous, and was a “guess.” You seem rather insistent I’m wrong, so I’m going to provide actual factual numbers this time.
Skyslipper
FFXIV mount obtained from Edens Gate Savage. (Which is currently "old" content, as the current raid tier is Edens Verse Savage.)
Players owning Skyslipper according to FFXIVCollect: 19% (no count provided.)
Players owning Skyslipper according to the lodestone, pulled from Lalachievements: 20.1 % (69,322 chars)
Model O.
An even older savage raid mount from Omega Deltascape Savage. Model O.
FFXIVCollect: 12%
Lalachievements: 14.8 % (50,866 chars)
These mounts are "difficult" but again, I was referring to the active playerbase. It takes more time to obtain these, so you generally need to be subscribed longer.
Lets take a look at the people I said "personally doubt" stay subscribed, which are the people who do the story, then unsubscribe.
Company Chocobo mount (easiest to obtain.)
FFXIVCollect: 99%
Lalachievements: 100 % (344,528 chars)
Continuing to use last expansions data...
Wind-up Exdeath. Obtained in Omega Deltscape Story mode.
FFXIVCollect: 63%
Lalachievements: 81.2 % (279385 chars)
Obviously these numbers are not 100% correct, as you can see they vary from site to site, but all sites provide roughly the same numbers. If there were millions and millions of active players, these numbers would be much higher.
If one were to use these numbers sensibly, based off the information, you have a number anywhere between 100,000 and... being overly generous now, 800,000 active subscribers.
If we were to bump the number up to even 2 million to be more generous in our estimates, lets now factor in the point of my statement, that why I doubt FFXIV hasnt reached the revenue/success of FFXI quite yet.
(See next comment response.)
Note Lalachievements pull from 343,992 characters.
Links to sites sorced.
https://ffxivcollect.com/minions
https://ffxivcollect.com/mounts
https://lalachievements.com/en/rarity/minion/global/
https://lalachievements.com/en/rarity/mount/global/
Additional Sites possible Data:
1.5 million subscriptions (this number probably is including the free trial players, I highly doubt this is subscribers.)
https://mmo-population.com/r/ffxiv
647,345
https://ffxivcensus.com/
(Steam specific)
16,326.5
https://steamcharts.com/app/39210
1 million
https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comm...illion_active/
(This number probably is the highest number the game reached at a given time, not something that is ongoing, but the number they peaked at while tracking/watching.)
Originally Posted by
Pixela
FFXIV has a very large cash shop with expensive items, I would guarantee it has.
Yes, some players do use the mogstation.
But you have to consider that most all mogstation items are previous seasonal items, so while you do see a large amount of the active playerbase (as provided above is anywhere between 100,000-800,000 maximum) not all of these players have utilized the mogstation to obtain said items, because they were obtainable for free in-game.
Now, why do I think this is not going to push FFXIV over FFXI considering how long both have been running?
Well a major key factor into FFXIV's revenue/profit/success is going to come from also FFXIV 1.0 which we all know, based on numbers alone for revenue, FFXIV 1.0 is drastically going to alter revenue for FFXIV as a whole.
FFXIV 1.0 was not only revamped between 1.0 and 1.23b, which was costly revenue/spending/budget. But 1.0 was running and having content developed for it, while FFXIV 2.0 was being developed, which is further revenue/budget and spending.
So if you take according to the estimate of 500,000 cap for FFXI, and the cap for FFXIV so far, 1 million.
Then you factor in the revenue of mogstation...
Then finally factor in that FFXIV 1.0 likely cost significantly more money to develop than FFXI, then you factor in the cost of developing 2.0, while also running FFXIV 1.0....
Again, key word personally, I personally do not see FFXIV having been more financial successful over FFXI.
So if it is true that FFXI did reach 500,000 subs (which I am not quoting) and FFXIV only just reached 1 million for its peak subscribers, but has to factor the costs from version 1.0 and double development time, I really dont feel Mogstation is going to make up for all of that.
Again that is personal opinion, no one has Mogstation sales, and we dont have revenue gains vs development costs.
But I personally feel, that newer games are more costly to develop than older games, and FFXI currently costs 12.95$ per month, while FFXIV is either 9.99$ (legacy) 12.99$ (Entry account) or 14.99$ (Standard account) With the options for both Legacy and Standard accounts to be reduced 12.99$ per month for Standard, and 7.99$ for Legacy respectively, while purchasing 6 months at a time.
I really dont think XIV can take XI considering all the above.
So lets make some numbers.
FFXI
+$ 12.95$/ Month
+$ 500,000 peak subscribers
x18 years
-$ 1 time development cost
-$ 1 time publishing cost
-$ 1 time advertising cost
FFXIV
+$ 7.99$/ Month (Legacy at 6 months discount)
+$9.99$/ Month (Legacy)
+$12.99/ Month (Entry( and (Standard-6mDsc)
+$ 14.99/ Month (Standard)
+$ Micro Transactions
+$ 1,000,000 peak subscribers
x7 years
(We cant count FFXIV 1.0 as a positive in revenue right? I do hope we can agree there.... if not, then I am at a loss of words.)
-$ 1 time development cost
-$ 1 time development cost
-$ 1 time publishing cost
-$ 1 time publishing cost
-$ 1 time advertising cost
-$ 1 time advertising cost
The reason I have Legacy and the other subscription types crossed out, is because I would think its rather logical that the amount of players using a standard account, and not paying 6 months at a time, is probably going to equal the amount of legacy players. Making the varying costs an even 12.99$ across the board.
With the above lets take a closer look
Using extremely simple math, based off the numbers we know to be "true."
FFXI:
12.95 * 12 (months in a year) * 18 years.=
2,797.20$
FFXIV
12.99 * 12 * 7 =
I'm not going to include 1.0, it is common knowledge it was not profitable.
1,091.16
2,797.2 > 1,091
FFXI wins.
Lets take this further....
FFXI
2797 * 500,000 = 1 398 500 000
FFXIV
1091 * 1 million = 1 091 000 000
1,398,500,000 > 1,091,000,000
On October 27, 2014 Square Enix implemented a cash shop to the Mog Station.
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki...Mog%20Station.
This means FFXIV needs to make 307.5 million from the Mog Station since 2014, which was roughly (less than) 6 years. That equates to 51.25 million a year.
If we take the maximum subscription for FFXIV at 1 million, and span that for the last 6 years (we all know that is 100% not-factual as they just hit 1 million sub peak last year... or 51$ per player per year.
If you honestly think every single player is dishing out significantly more than a 4 dollar Mog station item every single month, then.... all the more power to you I suppose.
But even still...
With the Mog station, and everyone were purchasing 5$ a month that only puts XIV just over XI... which does not count for double the costs. That is if 100% of all players were spending at least 5$ per month. I would be surprised if even 50% of the playerbase was buying an average of 5$ per month.
So again.
I "personally" feel FFXI has been more financially successful than FFXIV.