We lost 70% of our player base half a year in

[Nizzi]

I think more than anything the "WoW exodus" has been long enough in the past that the people who tried the game and think its for them have stayed, and those who didn't have left. Perhaps there was a large amount of those people who were holding out for EW to see what all would change, the new things etc and if they didn't like it they may have quit or not. A large amount of those people didn't stay behind, but I don't think it's right to say that the game is taking some massive downward slope because of that as nobody could've expected all of those players to start when they did. Rather, comparing the population of the game proportionally to around this time back in ShB would likely give a better picture of what's going on.

For as many problems with healing and a small amount of other things I have and I complain about on here, I think it's disingenuous to act as if this is a HUGE deal, but at the same time it shouldn't be ignored. If anything, SE needs to include more options to leave as feedback for when you unsubscribe from the game and maybe send an email when someone lets their sub lapse; if there is a problem that is causing people to unsub in huge amounts, the stated options you can choose are awful for leaving any actual feedback. Of the times I've unsubbed, I have 0 way of telling them "because you made my favorite jobs unfun to play" or providing constructive feedback, so it's not surprising when Yoshida says things like "I wasn't aware this was an issue" if that's actually true.

I think the game is just finally adjusting for the influx of players it had and its finally been enough time for them to decide to either "commit" or quit. AFAIK they're still planning on rolling out new servers for both EU and NA data centers, so I would think this wouldn't be in the pipeline anymore if there was a massive population drop that SE themselves was noticing.

[AngelCheese77]

Data point is still a data point. Shouldn't simply be dismissed outright.

If used in a correct context.

JoshStrifeHayes made a video about EQ2. He looked at Steam analytics where a very small amount of people were playing, and he stated the game was dying. That was disingenuous because there is an official launcher that has been out since EQ2 inception. Playing through Steam only came out recently.

Same with FF14. The official launcher has been out since inception and only recently on Steam.

[SturmChurro]

...

If you are a new player starting out, this game has a pretty good amount of content for a decent while, but it has been enough time since last year, for most of these players to have finished the story, and done much of the content.

Same with FF14. The official launcher has been out since inception and only recently on Steam.

As far as I'm aware, FF has been on Steam for awhile, and well before the big surges of players to the game. However, the game is also on consoles, but I generally do agree with the datapoint. If players have dropped on Steam, other platforms are most likely seeing a similar decline.

Personally, I don't play the game on Steam, and play it through the launcher.

Doesn't EVE Online have one? RuneScape is pretty much subscription based if you want to enjoy any content at all (free to play is INCREDIBLY limited, you are locked out of half of the world lol).

Oh yeah for sure, a lot of games do have "optional" subs..

Depends on your definition (and you'd have to really stretch before doing your mental gymnastics here to argue that point).

Even a lot of "free to play" MMOs have subscriptions, and Given that FFXIV has a couple hundred hours worth of content for free, it's tough to define that.

Overall though, it's likely not true WoW likely still beats it out, but nobody knows because no MMOs really release active players.

When I think of sub-based I do generally think of subs being actually mandatory, like WoW or FFXIV (disregarding free trial). Nowadays a lot of games do have those "optional" subs, but are still technically free to play, or buy to play.

[Daeriion_Aeradiir]

Is it "hysterics" to think that maybe an MMO shouldn't be content to have only a base of a third their expansion release numbers or two-thirds their patch numbers? That there should be a bit more to do in the mainstream content flow than just the new MSQ and initial raid clears?

The simple reality is that developers can never create content faster than consumers can consume it, without resorting to extremely predatory grinds like Korean MMOs, or on a lesser scale, many systems Blizzard has introduced into WoW across various expansions that are massive time sinks for the sake of being time sinks. If you create a game that respects a player's time like FF14 by not trapping them in insane grinds, it's an inevitability that once people chew through the content they desire, they'll move on to the next shiny thing that releases - why do you think so many games these days are trying to adopt the live service/season pass trend, much akin to a structure that's similar to an MMO with its patch cycles? Because even if the numbers will never be the same as on a game's release, delivering content at a later date will draw back some of those players that had once moved on.

The numbers in the OP's post are disingenuous, because of the fact that it's the exact same trend across every expansion since FF14 was released on Steam. HW, SB, SHB, EW, you can see they all get massive spikes, followed by a very large drop-off, then a steady climb back up in numbers as the next expansion begins to approach as everyone comes back to enjoy all the new content from all patches at once and get caught up, and you can easily see this on the graphs others have posted in rebuttal to OP earlier in the topic.

Claiming FF14 is dying off of a trend that has happened literally 5 times now is literally doomsaying and attempting to spread Hysterics for unfounded reasoning.

MMOs, and games in general, will always be spiky in nature in this day and age. With so much competition and so many shiny new games releasing all the time, having a 1/3rd retention on any game released 6 months post a major release is a pretty decent statistic. Even comparing the new kid in the town, Lost Ark (which is entirely steam based so the numbers are even more accurate afaik) went from nearly 1.3mil peak players 5 ish months ago to 500k average in the last 30 days, or about a 60% decrease across slightly under the same timeframe as EW -> to now, and that's a game that has the predatory long-term grinds to keep people playing. That currently playing number also includes the gold bots in Lost Ark, which is hard to say how big of a volume they encompass, compared to FF14, where the bots will almost entirely be using the normal client or the quick launcher due to the steam one being way too cumbersome to work with their 3rd party automation programs.

TL : DR, FF14 ain't dying. It's experiencing the exact. same. trend. It and the vast majority of games in this industry do 6 months after a release - so many have finished what they wanted to do in FF14 for now, and have moved on to other games. Some will come back for major patch hits, a not insignificant amount will wait until end of expansion to come back.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

If you are a new player starting out, this game has a pretty good amount of content for a decent while, but it has been enough time since last year, for most of these players to have finished the story, and done much of the content.

As far as I'm aware, FF has been on Steam for awhile, and well before the big surges of players to the game. However, the game is also on consoles, but I generally do agree with the datapoint. If players have dropped on Steam, other platforms are most likely seeing a similar decline.

Personally, I don't play the game on Steam, and play it through the launcher.

Oh yeah for sure, a lot of games do have "optional" subs..

When I think of sub-based I do generally think of subs being actually mandatory, like WoW or FFXIV (disregarding free trial). Nowadays a lot of games do have those "optional" subs, but are still technically free to play, or buy to play.

A lot of the current "f2p" games launched with subs, failed/didnt get investor returns fast enough on the sub model, and then went f2p.

Swtor, ESO, etc.

[ReynTime]

Where is the evidence to "steam users are only 15% of the playerbase"? Considering a large portion of the players use mods from that launcher which also requires steam validation I think defenders are pulling their numbers out of their rear.

If used in a correct context.

JoshStrifeHayes made a video about EQ2. He looked at Steam analytics where a very small amount of people were playing, and he stated the game was dying. That was disingenuous because there is an official launcher that has been out since EQ2 inception. Playing through Steam only came out recently.

Same with FF14. The official launcher has been out since inception and only recently on Steam.

Steam launcher has existed for over 7 years.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Where is the evidence to "steam users are only 15% of the playerbase"? Considering a large portion of the players use mods from that launcher which also requires steam validation I think defenders are pulling their numbers out of their rear.



Steam launcher has existed for over 7 years.

Pretty sure that launcher doesn't require steam validation. Only steam users require steam validation

[Illmaeran]

Funny, because that graph shows that there are fewer people in 6.1 than in early 2021 before the WoW influx.

I'm not seeing where you're getting that. Looking at the top graph, the farthest right (most recent) point is higher than in January of 2021, and is higher than May of 2019. Looking at the bottom graph, we have a substantial increase in players in 2019 with the lead up to Shadowbringers and a much higher concurrent player count going forward from ShB release.

[Yushees]

Servers still has small queues, no need steam charts for validation.

[Vav2021]

Snip

Is that a steam chart?