LuckyBancho data shows that FF14 is in decline

[Darkobra]

Funny how the same thing happened in the other expansions yet the game still continued to grow

But haven't you heard? It's dying! Been hearing that since 2014! And if I say it every single day for another 10 years and the servers eventually shut down, I'll have been right AND I'll have been warning you all for 20 years!

If only these people put as much effort into saving the planet, stopping deforestation, preserving wildlife... Nah, you all keep over-eating, avoiding physical work and posting every day that time ticks, clocks move and eventually a business will stop putting funds into a product. I'll be here with my feet up ready to warm my hands on the flames.

[Saraide]

But haven't you heard? It's dying! Been hearing that since 2014! And if I say it every single day for another 10 years and the servers eventually shut down, I'll have been right AND I'll have been warning you all for 20 years!

If only these people put as much effort into saving the planet, stopping deforestation, preserving wildlife... Nah, you all keep over-eating, avoiding physical work and posting every day that time ticks, clocks move and eventually a business will stop putting funds into a product. I'll be here with my feet up ready to warm my hands on the flames.

Gonna be real with you, forum posting takes a hell of a lot less effort than solving world wide problems and also isnt mutually exclusive.

[Ivtrix]

Gonna be real with you, forum posting takes a hell of a lot less effort than solving world wide problems and also isnt mutually exclusive.

Bro true most of the time it takes me about 4 seconds to conceptualize what I wanna post here. Takes a little longer thinking about how best to de-escalate the current boarder dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

[ForteNightshade]

Once again, SE showed its over the top ability to miserably fail and shoot themselves in the foot when they have every card to be successful. It continues to amaze me. Their game was at his highest ever, and they ended doing the bare minimum. Great strategy once again.

It really is amazing how consistently Square Enix wil shoot themselves in the foot and then stare blankly, wondering how it all happened. Case in point, FFXVI didn't sell enough to offset their previous losses (Avengers and Forspoken). Almost like releasing it as a PS5 exclusive meant drastically limiting their sale potential, especially when a massive portion of FFXIV players who might be interested are on PS4 or PC. They're doing it again with Rebirth. So I'll expect to read another "SE is disappointed Rebirth didn't reach sales expectations" a few months later.

[Ivtrix]

It really is amazing how consistently Square Enix wil shoot themselves in the foot and then stare blankly, wondering how it all happened. Case in point, FFXVI didn't sell enough to offset their previous losses (Avengers and Forspoken). Almost like releasing it as a PS5 exclusive meant drastically limiting their sale potential, especially when a massive portion of FFXIV players who might be interested are on PS4 or PC. They're doing it again with Rebirth. So I'll expect to read another "SE is disappointed Rebirth didn't reach sales expectations" a few months later.

My go to is to just blame the shareholders. They have no investment in the company and the product outside of the cash it brings in.

[CNitsah]

It really is amazing how consistently Square Enix wil shoot themselves in the foot and then stare blankly, wondering how it all happened. Case in point, FFXVI didn't sell enough to offset their previous losses (Avengers and Forspoken). Almost like releasing it as a PS5 exclusive meant drastically limiting their sale potential, especially when a massive portion of FFXIV players who might be interested are on PS4 or PC. They're doing it again with Rebirth. So I'll expect to read another "SE is disappointed Rebirth didn't reach sales expectations" a few months later.

I'm still not over the Bravely Default release... In Europe, the game was sold out the day it released. It took them 4 month to make more copies. When most people that cared at the released stopped caring about the game. Then for Second, they went all the way out, but since most people didn't play Default because of their "strategy", nobody really cared. Seriously, everytime they find a new way to fail. It's mesmerizing.

[Supersnow845]

It really is amazing how consistently Square Enix wil shoot themselves in the foot and then stare blankly, wondering how it all happened. Case in point, FFXVI didn't sell enough to offset their previous losses (Avengers and Forspoken). Almost like releasing it as a PS5 exclusive meant drastically limiting their sale potential, especially when a massive portion of FFXIV players who might be interested are on PS4 or PC. They're doing it again with Rebirth. So I'll expect to read another "SE is disappointed Rebirth didn't reach sales expectations" a few months later.

16’s release wasn’t so much because of the PS5 it’s because squares internal numbers for acceptable sales is a range that has completely unrealistic maximums

Like say (and I’m making up numbers here)

16 needs to sell 5 million to break even, there are 40 million PS5’s in circulation right now, square would have put its “acceptable range” at something stupid like 6 million-37 million as if selling to over half of the total number of PS5’s is even a remotely realistic stat

Then they will release a stupid press conference saying “it didn’t quite live up to expectations” meaning it didn’t reach the 37 million, even if it did reach the 6 million

So basically square has FAILURES (avengers) and “failures”, nothing ever meets their projections

[DPZ2]

That graph is pure gold. mmmm, delicious shareholder tears.

Shareholders aren't shedding any tears because of the Digital Entertainment - MMO division. Net sales numbers tell a different story from the one being depicted in this thread.

Net Sales by Fiscal Year (1 April through 31 March)

FY2013/3 Full Year - 11.1 billion yen (DQX launched)
FY2014/3 Full Year - 20.0 billion yen (ARR)
FY2015/3 Full Year - 23.3 billion yen (PS4 version of ARR released)
FY2016/3 Full Year - 31.6 billion yen (Heavensward released)
FY2017/3 Full Year - 22.7 billion yen
FY2018/3 Full Year - 31.8 billion yen (Stormblood released)
FY2019/3 Full Year - 27.1 billion yen
FY2020/3 Full Year - 40.1 billion yen (Shadowbringers released)
FY2021/3 Full Year - 39.8 billion yen
FY2022/3 Full Year - 62.2 billion yen (Endwalker released)
FY2023/3 Full Year - 53.3 billion yen

There is a drop the year after an expansion release. FY2023/3 (ended 31 March 2023) still had higher net sales than FY2021/3 (second fiscal year after Shadowbringers release).

Note that the Digital Entertainment - MMO division includes Final Fantasy 11, DragonQuest X and Final Fantasy 14 as titles.

[DPZ2]

Like say (and I’m making up numbers here)

Yes, you are making up numbers.

From the FY2024/3 Q1 briefing, Q and A with the CEO:

Q: Initial sales of “FINAL FANTASY XVI” were three million units. How did that compare to your expectations, and how do you plan to expand sales going forward?

A: This achievement was in line with our expectations. To expand sales, we have planned a variety of PR activities and other initiatives to encourage more of the growing PlayStation5 installed base to play the title.

[NekoMataMata]

An alternative explanation may make sense, though it is unlikely to portray the game in a good light either: perhaps those who are labeled as terminated have not actually stopped playing. They simply do next to nothing in the game and do not participate in much content at all in order to get any achievements (not even something simple like clearing Orthos to F20).

More inclined to say it's this, although I wouldn't say EO to F20 is simple. I don't think there's a decline in players, just that the audience is changing.

Not really sure what there is to say about this though. Community wise it sucks, but there's nothing that can be done about it.