JP: Yoshi P should step down, FF14 is a sinking ship, in response to interview

[MisterNublet]

Crazy how people are trying to defend the game's player count drop when the population is already back down to levels seen when the game had one of the worst content droughts and a terrible post-msq.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the current numbers we have now is the same as the pre-wow exodus numbers which means the game is no longer growing.

[Striker44]

Crazy how people are trying to defend the game's player count drop when the population is already back down to levels seen when the game had one of the worst content droughts and a terrible post-msq.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the current numbers we have now is the same as the pre-wow exodus numbers which means the game is no longer growing.

The good news, we can correct you there, at least with the only "hard" data we have available in the infamous Steam numbers. The "WoW Exodus" started in July 2021. Just prior to that, FFXIV was seeing an average daily player count of about 21-23k people (this may itself be inflated because there's a noticeable trend of players already starting to move over before it became a *mass* exodus, so a more reliable number might be closer to 17-18k, where it had been holding pretty steadily). The current data from the most recent 30 days is at ~28k. This is *well above* the pre-exodus numbers by anywhere from 20-55% depending on when you start counting the "exodus."

It's also noteworthy to look at player retention, since MMO's inevitably have cycles of ebb and flow with expansions and patches. To wit, DT's retention rate is right on par with every other expansion (DT = 68%; EW = 68%; ShB = 72%; SB = 70%; HW = 65%). And that's not even considering how the current player count is 4x the numbers from the HW and SB days, and 1.5x higher than the equivalent point for ShB (one month after release).

So, yeah, player count's are actually very easy to defend and show the game is simultaneously not experiencing anything out of the ordinary cycles while at the same time having a significantly higher player count than practically any time in the game's history with the exception of the "WoW Exodus" spike (and of course the release month of DT itself, which had the highest pre-sales ever).