How many people play FFXIV?

[Atoli]

Stats will always increase on XIVpads, regardless of who is playing and who stopped playing.

Just seeing that Germany is the 2nd country in term of popularity makes XIVpads stats completely unreliable. I really doubt that there are more DE players than UK ones.

Have you even read how statistics work on FFXIVpad (btw, never heard of it before)?
"When you view the site you're logged for that day as a "Visitor", and that adds on +1, if you come back the next day it adds +1"
It's not about inactive people, it's about people who actually come back and use the site again and again.
And there has been a strong rise since January..
I haven't seen as many players online as now in ages, too.
It's not just numbers, you can really feel it ingame

Btw, it doesn't matter if there are many Germans on FFXIVpad.
Even if only German players are coming back, wouldn't that also mean a rise in player numbers?

[Antipika]

Have you even read how statistics work on FFXIVpad (btw, never heard of it before)?
"When you view the site you're logged for that day as a "Visitor", and that adds on +1, if you come back the next day it adds +1"
It's not about inactive people, it's about people who actually come back and use the site again and again.
And there has been a strong rise since January..
I haven't seen as many players online as now in ages, too.
It's not just numbers, you can really feel it ingame

Btw, it doesn't matter if there are many Germans on FFXIVpad.
Even if only German players are coming back, wouldn't that also mean a rise in player numbers?

Which again doesn't mean anything? I can be active in-game and not active on pads. Like I can be active in-game and not even registered there. Not to mention that JP players most likely don't even go there.

More players using pads != more players active in-game. (soon we will talk about subscribers, but for now, as the game is free, all we can refer to are active players.)