Alrighty Folks. I don't often post on forums, but I am super curious to see what others observe.
As a long time resident of the Balmung Legacy server, it remains a hot spot for the community. For better or for worse. I wanna know from the eyes and words of others why they think that's the case.
I started out on Balmung, and even now have an alt there for when DC travel is a problem. However, I didn't start dedicating a lot of time to getting through the game and story until the ShB expansion, meaning to say that I am no veteran player. However, what seems to be some of the biggest draws to Balmung is its RP scene, especially that around Ul'dah Quicksand and the shout chat in that area. I think another draw to people perhaps wanting to transfer or make characters on Balmung is just for the notoriety Balmung has, it's "meme"-ability of sorts... Just to say you're a Balmung native, even if you don't partake in the common activities of others on the server. That's the main reason some of my friends chose Balmung over other NA servers.
Balmung was the result of a server merge between 1.0 servers Besaid & Fabul, which afaik were both RP servers. This made Balmung the obvious choice for the unofficial RP server. It's also why Ul'dah is the more populated city, rather than Limsa, since Ul'dah was the more popular place to hang out in 1.0.
RP servers tend to stay more active, even during content lulls. This activity attracts more players who are interested in the social side of MMOs, which then further causes even more people to go check it out to see if the server lives up to its reputation.
It's the first world alphabetically
People want to go to the most popular spots to meet people. Imagine if you wanted to make a FC and get a ton of people. You'd go to the most popular spot to shout, right? That's sort of what's happening but instead of FC recruiting, it's trying to find people to RP with, make friends, make a static(yes PF is a better option for that), or find an easy online hookup. The game doesn't have a better way to find and meet people IG so the community created their own and it happen to be Ul'dah in Balmung. Other people did create other options for that but the Balmung gathering is the most popular and easiest without creating or joining anything.