Did the devs lie to us? Either actually make BLU OP, or unlock it

[Iscah]

I have a character that I play on Yojimbo server which is mostly a JPN server and I can tell you, almost the whole server was running Blu when it launched last Tuesday. By the weekend though there were only a handful still running Blu. All the ARR zones were back to being dead again. Even where the Masked Carnival NPC is, there's maybe like one or two people there at a time, not to mention I haven't seen a single PF up for Primal Spells. My Japanese isn't fluent, but I would say they aren't too fond of BLU either, so it's definitely not a difference in culture.

I'm also on a Japanese server - Elemental group, which I don't think includes Yojimbo.

It's inevitable that it'll be busiest on first release, and after the rush fades you won't see the same concentration, because people have finished their open-world leveling and skills, at which point there's no reason to remain 'out in the open', and are probably hacking away at primal skills if they're still interested. I'm still seeing PFs posted, not that I check all that frequently, but people are also organising to do it with friends or FC members so you won't see all that's going on.

(Also at least on Unicorn server this week, I had to go to northern Thanalan for some quests with my alt character, and there was a fair-sized hunt group chasing the B-rank mark all over the map trying to get its skill. And people still powerleveling in other areas - could not get my hunt marks on the Isles of Umbra because a blue-and-scholar team were wiping out everything on the island. )

I'm not especially defending it, but "there are less people than there were on launch day" isn't a fair argument against the popularity of anything.