Populated server for NA players?

[Ongigiri]

Just started playing and I'm currently on the free trial.
Before I level any further, what is a populated server for NA players? EST time zone. Thanks!

[Enkidoh]

Welcome to Eorzea!

Any of the servers marked 'Legacy' probably would have the largest populations, as these servers were from the original version of FFXIV (version 1.0), and thus have long established communities there (Balmung is probably the most highly populated NA server, as this server traditionally was the unofficial 'role play' server that players in version 1.0 who liked to RP their characters flocked to).

Legacy servers can also be identified by being named after famous weapons from past FF games (like Balmung, Excalibur, Masamune, Ridill etc) - 'new' servers are named after monsters and summons from past FF games, such as your current server (Zalera, which was a summon and boss enemy in FF Tactics and FFXII incidentally). All servers which are NA/EU are all physically located in the one data centre in Montreal, Canada as well.

Someone else who is more knowledgeable on this subject that me would probably be able to give more detailed advice about this though.

[Ongigiri]

Sadly, the Legacy servers are full ): is there any way to check the population of the other servers??

[Jingai]

Sadly, the Legacy servers are full ): is there any way to check the population of the other servers??

They're not full 100% of the time though Ongigiri. You just have to wait til' the right window of opportunity pops for you to enter one.
Balmung, for example...mine and Enki's server, tends to have a window of access in the very early hours of the morning in EST. But only for a few hours. Then you gotta' just try sporadically to get in.
If you want a Legacy server, don't give up....might take a few tries, but you CAN get onto them. Enki and I have hopped from Legacy to Legacy before. Just takes timing. ^^

[CGMidlander]

Just started playing and I'm currently on the free trial.
Before I level any further, what is a populated server for NA players? EST time zone. Thanks!

Gilgamesh, Leviathan, Behemoth, Sargatanas, Excalibur, Balmung

[Xystic]

You want to keep in mind that in any MMO, large population servers have downsides to them. One of the biggest downsides at the current time for high population servers is that they aren't the best servers to access features such as housing. So it would be recommended that you look at all the features of this game and decide a server properly based on which features your interested. Many people made the mistake of joining large servers to realize the feature they were anticipating the most such as housing was highly inaccessible.

[Kloe]

After trying to create a character for my wife on Balmung to join me, I can say it's not "one of" the most populated servers but "the" most populated server. So if you want to get on Balmung you're going to most likely have to wait until before a maintenance/patch as this will be a time when there are less people concurrently logging into the game. Otherwise the other option is to create a character on any server, then pay $18 to get it transferred to Balmung in about 5 minutes. I tried for 3 weeks staying up late and waking up early to see if Balmung would open up and it never did. So I finally just paid the $18 and transferred my wife's character to Balmung and it worked within 5 minutes.