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

[Shurrikhan]

So, we just ignore logical, reasonable arguments because we don't like that they effectively make what we desperately want to be true moot? *Curious look*

Except, there hasn't been much logic or reason to any among those?

1. that Steam players are disproportionately WoW players, who must therefore be inherently toxic;
2. that Steam players' interests must be different because FPSs are sold on Steam;
3. that Steam players aren't as likely to appreciate MMOs because people don't go to Steam for MMOs, despite that accounting for a pretty significant portion of overall activity, downloads, and post-purchase transactions;
4. that any change in launcher is inherently a large enough change in itself to alter player perceptions of a given game; etc...

1. WoW is not and has never been on Steam. XIV has been on Steam for over 94% of its lifespan. WoW is not the only game that has hit drought periods during XIV's massive influx of free positive press. Why, then, would the population of people playing XIV over Steam significantly skewed towards WoW players? (Which still does not explain why those exiting WoW --which has tended, according to 6+ figure polls, to be primarily due to system-bloat and a poor story-- would be biased against XIV and therefore flee it more quickly.)
   
   
2. What part of having simply played an FPS, for instance, makes one so misrepresentative a sample that zero inferences are to be even suggested from them towards the larger playerbase?
   
   
3. There is far more evidence of a large use share of Steam game hours and downloads going to MMOs than that players who would use Steam have no interest in MMOs. Even then, that one has played relatively few MMOs, or that XIV is their first MMO, does not necessitate that they would be significantly more harsh towards XIV than those who have had longstanding interest in MMOs.
   
   
4. I double-clicked this one button instead of hitting this button, waiting, and then hitting that button to launch the game. The prior caused my interest in the game to sour significantly and thus any opinions I have about the game itself should be considered nonrepresentative and culled from any sample. ???

_____________________

I've no horse in this race here. I don't think the Steam numbers alone are sufficient to indicate any exact ratios as they'd apply to the whole playerbase. I do think they are similar enough, though, to imply similar trends. That said, they are trends we've known about damn near forever -- that XIV playership, perhaps a bit more so than most MMOs, rises and falls pretty sharply between expansions and between patches. Nor do I particular care what the game's numbers are except where a seeming missed opportunity would give warrant for further content I'd like (e.g., midcore content with some staying power). I'll simply play the game as long as I feel like playing it.

My issue is merely that trying to pretend that's XIV isn't especially spikey in its playership, even for an MMO, solely because the sample is taken from Steam (even if one were to pick less selective starting and ending points to the given span)... seems rather odd.

[hunkygladiator]

Oh look, just a whole page of reds with only one green

[Dorito_Burrito]

[Themarvin]

People have been saying make healers more engaging since Shadowbringers, and it’s been ignored.

People have been saying endgame is horrible with lack of content and it’s been ignored.

People want better hairstyles and headgears on the new races and it's been ignored.

After an ENTIRE year of receiving player feedback and FAILING to do what the community wants, now we have them scrambling to fix critical bugs after bugs like the housing lottery bug.

What a joke.

I wanted FF14 to thrive, I loved Stormblood but the game is dying and on it’s way out.

Square Enix, changes need to be made FAST.

NOT in 7.0, NOT in 8.0, it needs to happen THIS EXPANSION or you WILL lose the remaining player base.

Uhm its always higher amount of players on new expansions in FFXIV, please stop trolling, its normal it will decay untill next expansion also you may see spikes when bigger patches comes out.

[CStrife912]

Oh look, just a whole page of reds with only one green

Regardless of necro'ing your own threads, yay using steam metrics when proven to not be the full picture. New World is an example of a game that's doing badly FF14 isn't.

[Stormpeaks]

Regardless of necro'ing your own threads, yay using steam metrics when proven to not be the full picture. New World is an example of a game that's doing badly FF14 isn't.

Yes because samples have never been used for statistics, not at all /s

Well, statistically, OP only opens threads on the forums to troll and incite.

Never said the opposite

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Yes because samples have never been used for statistics, not at all /s

Well, statistically, OP only opens threads on the forums to troll and incite.

[DixieBellOCE]

Funny, when did Endwalker release..hmmm December 2021..I'm sure that's purely coincidental, right?

Nice try OP at fanning the flames of hysteria.

If anything it does prove that player retention over time is very low.

They could combat this by adding more endgame content, but any mention of this and the community goes into full white knight mode saying the game is perfect.. but the stats dont lie, if it was perfect players wouldnt leave after a raid tier finishes.

[DixieBellOCE]

Oh look, just a whole page of reds with only one green

To be fair that green is the release of patch 6.3 on january 10th.

If anything it shows that players do return to the game for a fresh patch, but the player retention is very low as within a month 13.61% of the STEAM playerbase had basically stopped playing.

If a patch that lasts for 4-6 months cannot retain the playerbase within a single month, then there are certainly issues and it does need to be addressed.

[Thurmnmurmn]

As long as you still have people to play with, who cares? It's normal for the numbers to decrease. If we see a huge decrease at an expansion launch, then it's time to worry. But this has been the same topic for years now and the game is still doing fine.