Out of touch? PLL

[Reinha]

Honest questions : what is that graph supposed to represent? the sales? the players online? how is profitable the game?

There is no legend, no graduation on the y axis. Is ARR supposed to be at 0? I'm open to accept EW did better in some area financially (precommands, for examples) but as it is, this graph could tells nothing. It could as much be a graph of the negatives critics.

It probably represents the number of registered users of FFXIV, as in people who have bought at least ARR at some point. Obviously the chart keeps going up because people don't "unregister" after they quit for the last time, they just leave their account as is and abandon it.

[Daralii]

It probably represents the number of registered users of FFXIV, as in people who have bought at least ARR at some point. Obviously the chart keeps going up because people don't "unregister" after they quit for the last time, they just leave their account as is and abandon it.

Are trial accounts included? If they are, the graph is completely meaningless.

[Reinha]

Are trial accounts included? If they are, the graph is completely meaningless.

Tbh, I'm not sure, so I take back what I said about players needing to have bought ARR. (It would be funny if they counted all the bot accounts that have already been banned.) I just remember "registered users" being a thing SE likes to boast about even though that number says nothing about the health of the game compared to better metrics such as daily logins, content engagement or active subcsribers. And if the graph says what I think it says, it would mean the most growth occurred in Shadowbringers and since then fewer and fewer people have been making new accounts.

Registered users:
2015, 5 million: https://press.na.square-enix.com/FIN...SERS-WORLDWIDE
2018, 14 million: https://press.na.square-enix.com/SQU...R-FINAL-FANTAS
2021, 22 million: https://press.na.square-enix.com/THE...REVEALS-DETAIL
2022, 25 million: https://press.na.square-enix.com/FIN...R-SUPPORT-PLAN
2023, 27 million: https://press.na.square-enix.com/FIN...RK-THRONE-CONT
2024, 30 million: https://press.na.square-enix.com/FIN...R-MID-NOVEMBER

[Wolferey]

Are trial accounts included? If they are, the graph is completely meaningless.

Yes, trial accounts, bots, banned people, everything. You have an alt? congrats, your alt character counts as an account because square decided it just means how many characters are on the lodestone. Every single time xivcensus and lucky bancho who crawls the lodestone shows nr of characters and every time square enix has celebrated "we have x million accounts registered!" its basically the same number