FFXIV population decline continues

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Originally Posted by BigCheez

It generated a lot of discussion about the state of healing among the community, which was kind of the point I think?

A lot of content creators covered it and I can guarantee you the devs will have seen it and are now aware that there are a decent number of players who feel that support roles have become boring to play in XIV.

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It's nothing new, and their "healer strike" didn't really accomplish anything did it? Kinda just fizzled out after awhile.

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Originally Posted by Lilapop

It's nothing new, and their "healer strike" didn't really accomplish anything did it? Kinda just fizzled out after awhile.

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I mean when literally every YouTuber has discussed it at least once and it’s basically become part of 14’s meme culture to demand a strike anytime you are dissatisfied it’s probably the furthest a player run initiative has ever gone in this game

If the devs still ignore it there is little more the playerbase can do at that point

Like do you want the strikers to start DDOS’ing the servers

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Originally Posted by Lilapop

I mean this seriously, jokes aside... there was a healer strike? I know it was a thing all over the forums, reddit, everywhere else etc. but did it actually impact anything? Other than hilarious people in PF trying to get gil to play healer.

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That's what I'm saying, did it really do anything?
So if a strike that got headlines outside of the Forum haven't gotten SE to act then people being vocal on the forum alone won't do anything.
Real actions has to be done to really show how unhappy people are.
However most people are too tied to the game to actually do anything to show it but being vocal.

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Originally Posted by Voidmage

Goggle trends only show how often people searched for that game and not how they engaged with it itself.
The last month FF14 mobile also had more search results that would be included in the normal FF14 search.
The there is also FF14 having quite a number of news articles since DT launched as well as people being just curious about the feedback DT got and searching for it.
Even FF11 has no trend in google searches and that game is in maintenance mode.
As far as I have seen WoW also a pretty constant search history despite it's... problems in the past but I don't know enough about that game to get a connection with releases.

Google trends is not really a good tool to look how happy the playerbase is or how many play the game poitive or negative.
Luckybancho is pretty much the best source of info we have available for player numbers and not a google trend...

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Just because you are unhappy with the game and you are using every waking moment to complain about it does not mean everyone else feels the same way.

The fact that the game has a healthy trend signifies that people are actively interested in it and will be more likely to engage in it. If the vast majority would be as unhappy as you claim it to be, the trend will also reflect that.

Considering that the trend remained steady without any major dips also shows that FF14 is still in a healthy state.

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Originally Posted by Kohashi

Just because you are unhappy with the game and you are using every waking moment to complain about it does not mean everyone else feels the same way.

The fact that the game has a healthy trend signifies that people are actively interested in it and will be more likely to engage in it. If the vast majority would be as unhappy as you claim it to be, the trend will also reflect that.

Considering that the trend remained steady without any major dips also shows that FF14 is still in a healthy state.

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Except there has been a very unhealthy movement in the population of this game

If the population has dropped by multiple hundreds of thousands and google trends have stayed the same that’s basically just indicative of people replacing “Is FFXIV the best game ever” with “Is FFXIV dying” on goggle or something of that effect

Both pop the search trends, only one of them is good

Looks like high cash shop prices are meant to alleviate the continuous drop in the population. Let's pay SE for content cadence, RIGHT?

A decrease in players is pretty much the only thing that can prompt them from deviating from their formula. Although I dont expect any such change to happen quickly.

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Originally Posted by Kohashi

Just because you are unhappy with the game and you are using every waking moment to complain about it does not mean everyone else feels the same way.

The fact that the game has a healthy trend signifies that people are actively interested in it and will be more likely to engage in it. If the vast majority would be as unhappy as you claim it to be, the trend will also reflect that.

Considering that the trend remained steady without any major dips also shows that FF14 is still in a healthy state.

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Usually I would be inclined to agree with you on a point like this, but I wouldn't necessarily say that the lowest population point in, what? 4 years? is a good sign or a healthy state for that matter. Is the game OK population wise? Of course it is, but this behavior is still indicative of a problem, and it's only a problem that is getting worse with each expansion. We still have another 3 1/2 months, give or take until 7.2 actually launches, so we're not even halfway into this patch cycle, I wouldn't call it a 'healthy trend'.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Except there has been a very unhealthy movement in the population of this game

If the population has dropped by multiple hundreds of thousands and google trends have stayed the same that’s basically just indicative of people replacing “Is FFXIV the best game ever” with “Is FFXIV dying” on goggle or something of that effect

Both pop the search trends, only one of them is good

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That is incorrect and it's not how Google trends work as it always compares it to peak popularity.

If you look at Genshin's trend you will see clear dips in trends that do correlate with the overall player dissatisfaction with the game, a fall in interest, the company practices, and the general "outrage" happening in the community.

A person not playing a game will also be more likely NOT to engage with it or any topics related to it. If you would play another game you would switch your search to something that actively interests you.

In short, put your mouth where your words are.

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Originally Posted by Kohashi

That is incorrect and it's not how Google trends work as it always compares it to peak popularity.

If you look at Genshin's trend you will see clear dips in trends that do correlate with the overall player dissatisfaction with the game, a fall in interest, the company practices, and the general "outrage" happening in the community.

A person not playing a game will also be more likely NOT to engage with it or any topics related to it. If you would play another game you would switch your search to something that actively interests you.

In short, put your mouth where your words are.

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So the population falls by several hundred thousand and since Google trends has remained steady roughly (even though it doesn’t account for negative interaction with the content) that’s somehow not a massive negative that the game needs to deal with

14’s population isn’t transitory. Interaction with the game remaining high in search’s doesn’t mean the game is healthy

I can search for trends without being subbed to the game. Are we really trying to justify actual player population based on silly google trends? Fr?

Not surprising, I can see that in my own FC and friend list. Hell, I've been raidlogging basically since Dawntrail dropped. Unless you're a raider, there's nothing to do. I have absolutely no idea why they didn't push out field operation content sooner, that would have kept the more casual players who can only invest an hour or two a day into the game happy for ages. Personally speaking, if it weren't for the handful of friends who still play, I would have been long gone, too. SE have been showing is for a long time that they don't care about this game. Either this steady bleeding of active players will finally kick them into action, or, more likely, the game will just slowly continue winding down. MMOs, sadly, seem to be a dying genre anyway.

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Originally Posted by xbahax92

I can search for trends without being subbed to the game. Are we really trying to justify actual player population based on silly google trends? Fr?

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As long as the game still actively interests you, it means nothing in the long run if you are subbed or unsubbed in the present time. If you are unsubbed but still searching for stuff related to it, it means that the likelihood to return to it is still great additionally it also means the retention did its job.

No company expects to have 100% retention or have the same number of players at all times nor that they matter as they are always fluctuating.

I wish problems in life would have easy answers but while the story quality may be a contributing factor to the decline in population (for example) there is no way to 100% correlate it or even claim it's the main contributor or any other singular variable but rather a cumulus of factors within the game + external which SE has no control over.

Simply put, what those numbers show is just a difference in population and NOT the reason why.

You are just suffering like most here from confirmation bias. You take a piece of data and interpret it however you feel it fits best for your own narrative in order to fuel your own misery and spread it around in the process as well.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

Not surprising, I can see that in my own FC and friend list. Hell, I've been raidlogging basically since Dawntrail dropped. Unless you're a raider, there's nothing to do. I have absolutely no idea why they didn't push out field operation content sooner, that would have kept the more casual players who can only invest an hour or two a day into the game happy for ages. Personally speaking, if it weren't for the handful of friends who still play, I would have been long gone, too. SE have been showing is for a long time that they don't care about this game. Either this steady bleeding of active players will finally kick them into action, or, more likely, the game will just slowly continue winding down. MMOs, sadly, seem to be a dying genre anyway.

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The things about the field content is when you remember the Fan Fest and all the content announcement during that time, you realize than it came up really late. It wasn't even revealed during a fan fest, with this in mind, it's easy to think that it's probably the content with the lowest development times and will come after the content revealed during Fan Fest. (Probably 7.35 if players are lucky.) When they finally started speaking about this field content, I was really under the impression that it wasn't planned before player starts complaining about the lack of it in the fan fests and was designed during that period making it a last time additions to the expansion.

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Originally Posted by Kohashi

Just because you are unhappy with the game and you are using every waking moment to complain about it does not mean everyone else feels the same way.

The fact that the game has a healthy trend signifies that people are actively interested in it and will be more likely to engage in it. If the vast majority would be as unhappy as you claim it to be, the trend will also reflect that.

Considering that the trend remained steady without any major dips also shows that FF14 is still in a healthy state.

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I wonder if Google trends for WoW peaked when players were leaving in droves, or when Blizz was mired in one of its scandals?

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

The things about the field content is when you remember the Fan Fest and all the content announcement during that time, you realize than it came up really late. It wasn't even revealed during a fan fest, with this in mind, it's easy to think that it's probably the content with the lowest development times and will come after the content revealed during Fan Fest. (Probably 7.35 if players are lucky.) When they finally started speaking about this field content, I was really under the impression that it wasn't planned before player starts complaining about the lack of it in the fan fests and was designed during that period making it a last time additions to the expansion.

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That's completely on SE, though. They easily could have developed it before FRU or, at the very least, Chaotic.

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

The things about the field content is when you remember the Fan Fest and all the content announcement during that time, you realize than it came up really late. It wasn't even revealed during a fan fest, with this in mind, it's easy to think that it's probably the content with the lowest development times and will come after the content revealed during Fan Fest. (Probably 7.35 if players are lucky.) When they finally started speaking about this field content, I was really under the impression that it wasn't planned before player starts complaining about the lack of it in the fan fests and was designed during that period making it a last time additions to the expansion.

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i'll probably never understand what pp like in field content, or rather what they do like that can't be put in the open world directly instead of going into instanced content.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

That's completely on SE, though. They easily could have developed it before FRU or, at the very least, Chaotic.

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The feel I got from this announcement is that it wasn't planned for DT to have a field content at first though, so they couldn't developed it before FRU or Chaotic that were already in development before the first Fan Fest. If they really decided to add it between first and second fan fest (announcement being between second and third during an interview if I remember it right), that was like a year ago, we're far from getting it from now.

I do think that they should have released something else than Chaotic and somethings grindy, it should have been relics, and it shouldn't be tied to field content (but field content could help progressing later in the expac).

FRU was probably in development since the release of TOP and Ultimates are now almost a permanent new content for .1 and/or .3 so nothing could come in its place.

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Originally Posted by Fatch38

i'll probably never understand what pp like in field content, or rather what they do like that can't be put in the open world directly instead of going into instanced content.

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Don't worry, you're not alone in this, and I'm sure that most people asking for a field content haven't done one during their patch cycle. This sudden love for a content type that was so much hated when released is surprising.

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Originally Posted by Kohashi

Just because you are unhappy with the game and you are using every waking moment to complain about it does not mean everyone else feels the same way.

The fact that the game has a healthy trend signifies that people are actively interested in it and will be more likely to engage in it. If the vast majority would be as unhappy as you claim it to be, the trend will also reflect that.

Considering that the trend remained steady without any major dips also shows that FF14 is still in a healthy state.

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"None of my friends want to play so the game is boring as hell but at least people are Googling it."

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Originally Posted by BigCheez

"None of my friends want to play so the game is boring as hell but at least people are Googling it."

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You spelled complaining in the forums all day long wrong.

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

Don't worry, you're not alone in this, and I'm sure that most people asking for a field content haven't done one during their patch cycle. This sudden love for a content type that was so much hated when released is surprising.

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Bozja is the single most popular non roulette content in the games history, it’s just about the furthest thing from unpopular content can get

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Originally Posted by Kohashi

You spelled complaining in the forums all day long wrong.

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Use Grammar well you do yes!
Strong with Reddit this one is yes!
ehh-hehehe!

Sorry couldn't resist. My spelling and typing and grammar is fin awful. There will be a mistake in this and I'm not going to bother to try and correct it.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

I mean when literally every YouTuber has discussed it at least once and it’s basically become part of 14’s meme culture to demand a strike anytime you are dissatisfied it’s probably the furthest a player run initiative has ever gone in this game

If the devs still ignore it there is little more the playerbase can do at that point

Like do you want the strikers to start DDOS’ing the servers

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My point is... there were strikers beyond people on reddit, forums, youtubers, and the goofs trying to get gil for being a healer? What exactly was accomplished? It didn't even seem like queue time was effected by people "not playing healer"

I believe there are a few main reasons for the FFXIV population decline. There is a not insignificant number of people (and growing) who have become exhausted with the job and battle mechanics, and general homogenization and lack of complexity or decision-making within the game combat. Folks looking for a game which requires more than pattern memorization are starting to look elsewhere.

There's also the argument for lack of casual and/or mid-core content. Also lack of any long form grindable content. SE has done a pretty good job with bringing the more difficult "party finder" content to the game, but that even now is only servicing a small portion of the playerbase. The larger majority currently has nothing to do, and hasn't pretty much since DT launch. They are steadily leaving the game due to lack of content. This has always been strange to me because FFXIV is a big enough game, and makes enough money to have a team capable of putting out content for all types of people without sacrificing what they are already doing. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Everyone can be served, but that's not happening.

On a personal note my sub is expiring tomorrow and I have no intention or renewing it. I may come back for 7.2, but we'll have to see what that patch actually provides. If there simply isn't enough to do I won't bother, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. This may turn out to be a "wait for 8.0" situation, but we'll see.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Bozja is the single most popular non roulette content in the games history, it’s just about the furthest thing from unpopular content can get

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Yeah, clearly the waiting time for Delubrum is so fast, it totally proves your point.

The zones themselves have become more popular during EW but the content was not received well. The only reason that pushed people in it were the relics and that's probably true for today also.

Delubrum popped pretty fast and regularly throughout the entirety of ShB since its release (Did 255+ runs on patch it was a blast). They only started thinning out at the tippy end of 5.58 and becomes more PF oriented past 6.05'ish.

Delubrum was already mostly a pf things during ShB particularly after they increased the rewards, it was a nice way to farm relics when you could do it in 15min, and during that time you could find 10+pf during peak hours.

But Bozja himself got extremely criticized during those patch, it's only because it was the new content with relics that it got a lot of people in it (and it was better than eureka for casual to jump in and out regularly). It's recent success is not even comparable to player activity during release but people in it now likes it better than the one during release.

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

Delubrum was already mostly a pf things during ShB particularly after they increased the rewards, it was a nice way to farm relics when you could do it in 15min, and during that time you could find 10+pf during peak hours.

But Bozja himself got extremely criticized during those patch, it's only because it was the new content with relics that it got a lot of people in it (and it was better than eureka for casual to jump in and out regularly). It's recent success is not even comparable to player activity during release but people in it now likes it better than the one during release.

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Everything gets “extremely criticised” on launch

It still has a interaction rate that dwarfs other content and that interaction rate includes aspects of Bozja that the relic doesn’t incentivise

36% of people who entered Bozja at least once cleared dal more than 10 times. That is insane, the game offers no reward for clearing dal more than once and 36% of people who entered Bozja cleared it 10 times or more. Over 70% of people who entered Bozja made it to Zadnor. 69% of players who were level 80 in ShB attempted Bozja. These are monstrous numbers. It rivals eden normal for on patch interaction

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

Delubrum was already mostly a pf things during ShB particularly after they increased the rewards, it was a nice way to farm relics when you could do it in 15min, and during that time you could find 10+pf during peak hours.

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It wasn't solely a PF thing, the PFs mainly existed because SE is bad at itemization and made the good DPS essences too rare, and made the gap between a full team with good essences vs DF with little to no essences too wide. It could take like an hour and a half in DF.

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

Delubrum was already mostly a pf things during ShB particularly after they increased the rewards, it was a nice way to farm relics when you could do it in 15min, and during that time you could find 10+pf during peak hours.

But Bozja himself got extremely criticized during those patch, it's only because it was the new content with relics that it got a lot of people in it (and it was better than eureka for casual to jump in and out regularly). It's recent success is not even comparable to player activity during release but people in it now likes it better than the one during release.

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Limsa mains will complain about anything they can't just swipe for on Mogstation. Not all criticism is equal.

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Originally Posted by KiiNGKRUSH

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-14-active-players-large-drop-below-1-million/

Thoughts on this article and are you at all worried about the games trajectory?

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i find people to do content and play the game with .pretty much non issue for me

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Originally Posted by Kazelus

Delubrum was already mostly a pf things during ShB particularly after they increased the rewards, it was a nice way to farm relics when you could do it in 15min, and during that time you could find 10+pf during peak hours[...]

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Not to my experience. I recalled finishing all the Augmented Law Order phase before they nerfed/increased the rewards given & during those periods, pug queues were still pretty much popping under 10m or so. Now obviously they don't finish the run under 25m outside unusual times where 16+ players knows what to do and brings useful essences. But they're far from being "mostly". The split between pug and PF (at least in Aether) was only becoming more noticeable during 5.55-5.58 content draught, at which point pug queues begin to diminish.

I don't know how different things were in EU, so YMMW.

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Originally Posted by jonimated

I believe there are a few main reasons for the FFXIV population decline. There is a not insignificant number of people (and growing) who have become exhausted with the job and battle mechanics, and general homogenization and lack of complexity or decision-making within the game combat. Folks looking for a game which requires more than pattern memorization are starting to look elsewhere.

There's also the argument for lack of casual and/or mid-core content. Also lack of any long form grindable content. SE has done a pretty good job with bringing the more difficult "party finder" content to the game, but that even now is only servicing a small portion of the playerbase. The larger majority currently has nothing to do, and hasn't pretty much since DT launch. They are steadily leaving the game due to lack of content. This has always been strange to me because FFXIV is a big enough game, and makes enough money to have a team capable of putting out content for all types of people without sacrificing what they are already doing. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Everyone can be served, but that's not happening.

On a personal note my sub is expiring tomorrow and I have no intention or renewing it. I may come back for 7.2, but we'll have to see what that patch actually provides. If there simply isn't enough to do I won't bother, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. This may turn out to be a "wait for 8.0" situation, but we'll see.

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take your rest warrior of light and come back when you feel like it

But where is everyone going?! The next content is only 4 months away! Aren’t you all so excited so for this content patch that’s so far away you’re guaranteed so forget it’s even coming? And it likely won’t even add any worthwhile content until a couple weeks after the patch! Man I love having to wait for the patch so I can wait for the [sub]patch
/s

I feel like Square relies too much on fan loyalty, which has made them complacent.

I hope it keeps declining. They need a wake up call.

Funny part is my friend usually likes to skip the story but liked any ascian parts. Dawntrail was the first expansion where he read the story.

I basically told him "You picked a bad time to start reading the story lol." Even I am barely on for an hour a day doing... daily stuff, which I probably don't even need to be. Nothing I do is really current content unless a roulette throws me into it for the nth time.

With a written statement from SE that involves "denial of personality" for their employees/partners, I would imagine even peaceful customers that keep to themselves would feel a touch bristled, perhaps bristled enough to leave due to how that can be interpreted on the western side of things, and how much damage and drama it's caused in whatever media and community it's touched. Customers may disagree with the opinions of staff members or partners, especially artists like voice-actors, but that isn't a denial of personality; no one can deny a personality. They can argue it, debate it, disagree with it, dismiss it, but they cannot 'deny' it. It's someone's fantasy, not theirs. They can only deny subscribing to it, which is their right, however if that constitutes as 'denial of personality', then we have a major problem. Legal action should already be taken if life-threatening or harmful actions are being taken against employees/partners, but the statement leaves room for interpretation and gives enough flexibility to empower (especially the English team) the partners into claiming what is/isn't considered 'harmful' (like hurt feelings or a return-to-sender response from the community in response to a gaslighting quip from a partner or employee) and exacting a twisted sense of revenge while using Square Enix's shadow to show intimidation. It isn't necessarily what is going to happen, but it's a huge possibility and implied that should any emotional harm come to the partners/employees, or continual 'defamation' of the sparse content in their products, there will be legal action taken. It comes off as a veiled threat with how it is written. So Final Fantasy XIV's gradual decline in player population isn't totally accredited to the statement, since the lack of goodwill and quality content chocked full of things to do seems to be doing that already, but it's now a catalyst to continue bleeding numbers.

Regardless of personal stance, this is the general consensus and the biggest detail that has been scrutinized from the official statement, and has been spreading around through the media since. It will be interesting to see how the year 2025 shapes up as we move forward and the numbers fluctuate.

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Originally Posted by Skaadenfroid

Probably not an issue. There's little to no appeal at the moment for casual gamers with the content actually expecting people to put in effort to complete it, no exploration zone for grindcore content, and little to no 4 player party or solo content.

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Yeah, I've done a few savage tiers but nowadays I'm just... really not interested in playing "Everyone does the mechanics 100% correctly or everyone explodes"

Having to co-ordinate with strangers with varying degrees of capabilities and being held back by the lowest common denominator gets very old after a little while, would like more content that either doesn't punish mistakes as harshly or is completely solo so you can suffer through your own mistakes, also content like Bozja offering differing types of buffs to spice up gameplay adds a lot when it comes to casual content.

Yoshida (2016, Gamescon): "It's alright not to play it everyday. Since it's just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it's hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it'll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart's content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game."

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, and come back when you want to."

So people are just taking his advice. Nothing else to see here as people are playing other things since they did the content they wanted to. I am personally just going through a back catalogue of games I have like RDR2 or Elden Ring.