They did an Official Player Poll back before FFXIV ARR even launchedit confirmed Viera as the most demanded and desired playable race.

Viera votes outnumbered everything else.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/46936

it's as official as official public polls get. People's race preference then is the same now.

the only thing that came close were mixed races, followed by new clans for existing races,
but they still are greatly outnumbered compared to Viera votes.

Viera has over 50% more votes than reptilian and demi beastmen races

over 70% more votes than wolf/gnoll races



I would love to see Viera added like Alacran has described

[/QUOTE]
And from this concept art

[IMG]http://cdn4.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Viera1.jpg[/IMG

I like the smaller version in the concept art but also think it’s a drastic change between clans.