How does FFXIV fare against other modern MMORPGs?

[Ilyrian]

Many people did not expect FFXIV to be this close to WoW 5 years ago.

Is it? Do we have sub numbers to compare? Because I don't think there's anywhere near a comparison here. Would be interesting to see.
But with respect to FFXIV - it's in no way 'close' to WoW. Successful, but in a different league.

[OurMom]

Is it? Do we have sub numbers to compare? Because I don't think there's anywhere near a comparison here. Would be interesting to see.
But with respect to FFXIV - it's in no way 'close' to WoW. Successful, but in a different league.

We're not close I dont know why xiv players can't tell the difference between accounts made and active subscribers.

[Aylis]

Different strokes for different folks and whats "best" is subjective to the person and there is no real textbook "best" mmo.

I can't deny WoW and FFXIV are the biggest mmo's. I sorta wanna put in SWTOR in this as well. All three are really long running franchises and all three have its own legion of fans because of the name and because of the companies behind it. The rest fall into the category "you either like it or you don't"

FFXIV does excel at both presentation and being the perfect social type game if a player seeks more bite then what they can get out of Second Life. This is where FFXIV falls flat for me and if I only had the choice between WoW, SWTOR and FFXIV. I would pick WoW. FFXIV maybe more stunning to look at then WoW, but much like I could walk down a sidewalk and spot a pile of dog poop, I can put all the spray paint and dump as much glitter as I want on it and in the end all I'll have is a pretty pile of poop. FFXIV is just too constrictive for me. Here I know no matter how good I am, no matter how good my gear is. I'm very much limited to what I can do on my own. I like being social with friends but at the same time I also like pushing myself solo to see what I can do alone. That's fun for me. WoW maybe less visually amazing, but its presentation is good enough for me since when I remember from when I played. The world was more open and I had the options to see how far I could push myself alone when I wanted to be alone. I'll trade any visuals in exchange for options.

I still enjoy FFXIV for what it is with friends, but when no friends are around I tend to favor mmo's with more bite and flexibility.

[Maeka]

FFXIV most boring by far. I would say FFXI way better than FFXIV for pve content. FFXIV just really lacks on content to keep ones here playing it.

And yet, the one thing that FFXIV tries to copy FFXI on, is universally hated by everybody, you know, Diadem/Eureka/Pagos?

Apparently FFXI-style content is NOT fun afterall, by most peoples' standards.

Eureka is basically an Abyssea re-hash, and... most people hate it.

[Jojoya]

Is it? Do we have sub numbers to compare? Because I don't think there's anywhere near a comparison here. Would be interesting to see.
But with respect to FFXIV - it's in no way 'close' to WoW. Successful, but in a different league.

Blizzard doesn't release subscriptions numbers anymore so there's no way to get the real numbers. Even MAUs get lumped together for all their titles unless they're trying to brag of a specific game's success (which has pretty much been Overwatch or Hearthstone for the last couple of years).

They did announce that there were 3.4 million copies of Battle for Azeroth sold on launch day but that's misleading because it included players who pre-purchased months in advance to unlock early access to the Allied races. Some of those players quit the game before the expansion released because they didn't like what they saw once beta testing started or they objected to the level scaling changes when those were introduced a few weeks after the pre-purchase campaign began (hope that $60 to play an Allied race for a couple of months was worth it to them).

Almost everyone on my Battle.net friends list was logging into WoW the first week of Battle for Azeroth. Only 2 are continuing to log in regularly 5 weeks later and most are no longer logging into WoW at all.

I wouldn't be surprised if FFXIV numbers were closing in on WoW but it would be more because of WoW's rapid fall than FFFXIV's rapid rise.

We're not close I dont know why xiv players can't tell the difference between accounts made and active subscribers.

The informal census isn't a great way of knowing the number of active FFXIV players because it's based on obtaining certain achievements. Someone can be active but not be counted if they don't have that achievement.

I know I wasn't included until the last couple of months even though I've been playing fairly consistently the past 3 years because I had stopped MSQ progression with Heavensward (the final 3.0 quest). During HW, the census was using a post 3.0 quest to get active player numbers. It was only in July that I started working on the MSQ again because I finally about to replace the potato of a computer I'd been using. I've met other players who are far more interested in side content they've already got unlocked than in MSQ progression. Try to encourage them to continue with the MSQ to unlock even more content and the response is "Nah, I'm having fun with what I'm already doing. Maybe later.".

The active population is going to be much higher than the informal census indicates. I still don't think it's WoW level (unless WoW has fallen a lot harder than most people believe) but it's better than many assume.

[Lord_Umbra]

And yet, the one thing that FFXIV tries to copy FFXI on, is universally hated by everybody, you know, Diadem/Eureka/Pagos?

Apparently FFXI-style content is NOT fun afterall, by most peoples' standards.

Eureka is basically an Abyssea re-hash, and... most people hate it.

Except XI & XIV combat is very different, XI plays better with that style & isn't as tiring as XIV trying do that style but still have XIV combat.

[Ilyrian]

I wouldn't be surprised if FFXIV numbers were closing in on WoW but it would be more because of WoW's rapid fall than FFFXIV's rapid rise.

That's a fair point - it is all assumption at this point. I think Legion went some way to pick WoW up after Warlords decimated (quite rightly) the numbers. It was awful.
I don't know how it's doing now. I'm trying so hard not to get sucked back into it. I do think Legion was the best expansion since Burning Crusade though, but after Warlords that's not saying much. Raiding was good in it, however.

[OurMom]

Snip.

Even if we gave the unofficial census an extra few hundred thousand we're still not close to WoW numbers at all.

I also find it funny when people say "xiv is the second most popular sub mmo" (not saying anyone in this thread said it, I just see it a lot when xiv players talk about numbers) when there's only like 2 or 3 sub mmos left lol.

[Maeka]

Except XI & XIV combat is very different, XI plays better with that style & isn't as tiring as XIV trying do that style but still have XIV combat.

No, you just have hours and hours of barely utilizing your brain because you're down into the sub-10 APM counts that FFXI gameplay has.

Might as well go watch a movie at that point, to be honest.

I played FFXI for years, and I have memories of oftentimes being half asleep in a zombie like state because the gameplay was just that boring, even after Rhapsodies on many jobs.

[Ruinfeild]

From what I know in terms of popular MMO's I believe it was WoW and FFXIV that are up there (though I suppose it helps that they are the only sub based MMO's out and lots of my friends like myself believe you get what you pay for) and I played both. Still playing FFXIV and though I may take breaks I won't actually ever leave the game. As for FF11, my brother played it a lot and loved it but I played it for about an hour back in the day and quit so I can't say much on it. Though I suppose I will say my part between WoW and FFXIV.

Combat: I see a lot of people say the whole 'I just press x amount of buttons in WoW and that is it compared to FFXIV' when I can say the same thing about FFXIV. WoW is a bit more fast paced which I like and most of the systems such as such as death knight runes, shaman totems, warrior rage bar, etc. FFXIV has pretty much the same thing but it just doesn't feel as in depth. Talent trees I never liked in any MMO. Sure it is seems as balanced as it could get in WoW but there will always be an 'optimal' set of talents to go with and if you don't go them, you will be strung up by the community.

Story: I only liked WoW's story up to WoTLK. After that, I stopped caring. It felt far to over the top, even with Legion. Now in BfA I don't really care (haven't played it yet but I watched gameplays and cutscenes) cause it seems easy to predict already what is going to happen. With FFXIV, I have for the most part rather enjoyed the story and where it is going even if at times SE falls on their face with tension. I may just be sadistic but more character deaths are needed rather than just using them for shock value. Oh, and I do like how in FFXIV the character you play is centered around the story but it DOES also let you know that there are others like you who can help rather than 'you are the chosen one and only you can do this'.

Music: Not much to say on this. FFXIV wins hands down.

Crafting:Again, FFXIV. I tried crafting back in WoW and just massed made items and walked away. Granted I can do that in FFXIV but it tends to be with lower level mats where as higher level ones I put in the effort to make them.

PvP: Don't do it much but I rather enjoy FFXIV. All I remember from WoW is just a CC fest and if you are just starting PvP you might as well sit to the side and suck your thumb.

PvE: Oh boy here is the big one.

Dungeons: Other than the stupid cycle they see to have with 2 new dungeons rather than three, I MUCH prefer FFXIV dungeons. Yes they are linear but I prefer that over the stupid large open dungeons WoW has. I had to point out to a friend that sure they are large and you can explore them but no one does or cares unless you go with friends. In legion when I started dungeons again, people always found the shortest route to the bosses and avoided as many enemies as they can to get it done as quick as possible. Players for the most part will always do this so having something linear actually feels like I am seeing the entire dungeon and having fun doing it.

Raids/Trials: I only really did raid finder here and there in Legion until the last raid (which I did a little bit of 10/25 man pugs) and I think FFXIV just pulls slightly ahead. WoW has a lot of decent mechanics as well with its bosses but it doesn't feel as grand as FFXIV does. Though I will give bonus to WoW for rarely seeing the same mechanics used constantly and always trying to come up with new ones to fit the fight rather than doing with what FFXIV does and recycling mechanics with not a lot of difference between them. Even so, the raids and trials just feel more grand and larger than life (I really like this most recent alphascape fights). The transition phases are also top notch in FFXIV (I am looking at you Thordan).

Side activities: WoW wins to me hands down. Sure Gold Saucer is cool but I rarely have a reason to go there and TT and other things don't keep my interest long enough. WoW with the pet battles, collectibles (A LOT of them) and other side activities kept me interested to try and do them all. Hell, a lot of the stuff you could find was either decent gear to gave items you could use/turn in for other things which made them worth exploring.

I still love FFXIV and I find myself playing for years to come but I do wish FFXIV would take some pages from WoW (since they enjoy taking risk's and adding new things). Mainly things like mythic dungeons (when I first tried them they were annoying as hell and made me rage but once I got better gear and better understood them I had WAY more fun), collectibles that players can find in the world that gives gear or items to use, and just trying new things rather than reusing old content that no one liked (looking at you Diadem).