Where is the "never before seen content"?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Well on my defense maybe I should have used words differently I meant that they've shown that it works on their game and they thought it would work on here especially since ppl complains that later in the patch there's nothing to do afaik we've been getting monthly updates this time around so we can't really say that nobody said anything about the previous release.
But overall I agree that FFXIV doesn't gave the ability to fly like wow and that's why I'm always saying that we should consider what wow does with a grain of salt.

However as far player counts go it has been extremely erratic in behavior for all of stormblood with spikes in player counts in odd moments as such I would say we need more investigations before having any remarkable conclusions on it
I don't get how we got about 200k in the lul before 4.1 (this was right before 4.1 dropped and after the 2 counts in SB btw) Or the 90k spike between the release of eureka and 4.3, so far I've got no answer on why it might've happened perhaps I need to contact the guy keeping the list again

I will preface my response by saying it's entirely speculative. So please keep that in mind.

That aside, I suspect the upswing in 4.1 came due to players still returning, Ultimate and Rival Wings. Both were hyped exceptionally, especially the latter in conjunction with the PvP changes. Collect all that with an easier Savage and promises of a scaling difficulty, and people had more to keep themselves occupied. Something else you can attribute to increased subs in 4.1 is raiders opting to stick around. After all, they now had Ultimate whereas before, they didn't have a whole lot to do. Additional housing wards also came out around this time. So why the subsequent drop? Rival Wings imploded while Savage being made easier also meant it possessed less longevity. The reception towards Alte Roite and Catastrophe weren't exactly stellar either, at least amongst my own circles. Even casual groups like NEST pointed out Alte Roite was a bit too easy, which says something.

As more players finished Stormblood, I wager many found there wasn't actually all that much available with any lasting appeal. The PvP "improvements" bombed, hard, and 4.1 offered very little outside niche content. Therefore, when 4.2 came around, you saw a noticeable dip—one that only recovered because Eureka was supposed the "next big thing." That brought players back given how much focus was placed on it's innovation. And the divisive response is why those active numbers dropped sharply thereafter.

We may see another upswing around 4.4 because of the Monster Hunter Collab, but I guarantee it will plummet severely come 4.5, especially if we're given no new surprises beyond more Eureka.

Stormblood has basically fed off constant hype yet poor sustainability. Be it Ultimate, PvP, Eureka all the way to something as simple as job gauges. They were all hyped substantially despite only Ultimate paying any real dividends. And if 4.5 does repeat the drought of 3.5, I cannot help wonder if people's faith will have been spent. After all, if they follow predictable patterns, we're looking at a very lengthily drought with virtually nothing to do. Stormblood was supposed to SE's chance to be innovative. Instead, they played it punishingly safe, going so far as to make everything even easier. I just can't see them getting away with a retread of that same philosophy come 5.0.