FFXIV population decline continues

[Lilapop]

Having a better understanding of the words you're reading helps. But keep refreshing and rubbing your eyes, I'm sure you'll get there.

Typically when someone disagrees with a provided description, they provide their own and why they think so. Y'know, basic constructive conversation. But seeing as how you consider "Lol. Lmao even." a constructive contribution, I'm not surprised you react this way.

[Rehayem]

I'm going to be real I dont understand how XIV is second top MMO. almost all of its systems are problematic or archaic, nothing feels finalized or fleshed out. and its been this way for a very long time. it seams like the attention of WOW players due to the success of SHB has only drawn attention to this more for all to see

FFXIV has always been advertised as very story focused MMORPG. The moment the story took a dive, other problems have become more noticeable and clear, creating a big wave of player dissatisfaction, with Yoshi-P ignoring the issues and pretending it's all fine.

When EW launched, people were already dissapointed with the combat not receiving anything new, but were willing to forgive it because of the story. DT showed us that is not the case anymore and players aren't buying his nonsensical PR talk.

[Clockworks]

The denial some of you people are in regarding this game really is concerning.

Stop blaming COVID and lockdowns, it's 2025.

[Jeeqbit]

SB 663k -> 830k
ShB 943k -> 1.2m
EW 1.3m -> 1.7m
DT 1.4m -> 1.1m

The problem with the 1.7m stat is that it was a spike that didn't hold since it was riding off the back of the game going viral. It fell down to more like 1.4m ish after that.

I agree that the long-term concurrent population of the game has grown by about 200k every expansion (more in EW), but in order to properly see that with Dawntrail we really need a longer term view, not this short term view. For example, what will it look like at 7.2? Etc.

The denial some of you people are in regarding this game really is concerning.

Stop blaming COVID and lockdowns, it's 2025.

If we're comparing stats to the past - literally a time when Covid was more relevant, then yes it's relevant, and it's being in denial of this fact to not consider it.

[BigCheez]

The problem with the 1.7m stat is that it was a spike that didn't hold since it was riding off the back of the game going viral. It fell down to more like 1.4m ish after that.

I agree that the long-term concurrent population of the game has grown by about 200k every expansion (more in EW), but in order to properly see that with Dawntrail we really need a longer term view, not this short term view. For example, what will it look like at 7.2? Etc.

If we're comparing stats to the past - literally a time when Covid was more relevant, then yes it's relevant, and it's being in denial of this fact to not consider it.

The spike didn't hold because the game didn't hold people's interest. The game "went viral" in 2021. It seems silly to try to attribute changes in player behaviour in late 2024 to that.

This was 6.0 to 6.1:



Obviously player numbers fell off after the expansion released but people came back for 6.1 and stuck around for a solid month afterwards.

This is 7.0 to 7.1:



You can barely even see where 7.1 is on the chart. Hardly anyone came back and a lot of them left after only 2 days.

Trying to suggest that there are fewer people playing games post-COVID just doesn't work when FFXIV achieved its all time peak player count in 2024. WoW is sitting pretty at 7m active players. OSRS just broke its own concurrent player record in November. Counter-Strike 2 has 1.5m concurrent players every day.

Why does FFXIV seem to be the only game in existence that is somehow still experiencing long-term effects of COVID?

[Videatur]

Why does FFXIV seem to be the only game in existence that is somehow still experiencing long-term effects of COVID?

Because when you do not accept reality you try to point the finger at something regardless. Unfortunately FF14 is a sin of so many things to really update, because it lacks QoL which has existed in other MMOs since 2004, but when you only think about updating textures and lighting but the rest of the game is stuck in 2013 in the long run people simply get fed up.

[Exmo]

Why does FFXIV seem to be the only game in existence that is somehow still experiencing long-term effects of COVID?

Nobody has said it's the only game in existence that blah blah blah. But since you asked ->

https://www.nme.com/features/final-f...-covid-2884397

[BigCheez]

Nobody has said it's the only game in existence that blah blah blah. But since you asked ->

https://www.nme.com/features/final-f...-covid-2884397

Kind of missing the point. This feels suspiciously like you just desperately Googled "ffxiv covid" and copy and pasted the first vaguely relevant article you found.

What makes you think that this applies only to FFXIV and not every other online social platform?

Why do you think that players have more readily left FFXIV post-COVID than other games?

Why would FFXIV achieve an all time peak player count in 2024 if people had moved on from FFXIV after COVID?

What does players leaving the game after that peak in 2024 have to do with COVID?

[Clockworks]

Nobody has said it's the only game in existence that blah blah blah. But since you asked ->

https://www.nme.com/features/final-f...-covid-2884397

That literally proves nothing and especially not your point.

[Exmo]

This is the last time I'll explain to you that FFXIV's playerbase expanded during the pandemic mainly because of societal factors and this phenomenon was particular (but not unique) to FFXIV and it is well understood and documented. When those factors disperse, it's natural that the playerbase would contract.

I can't make you understand this if you're unwilling to, and taking to some of you about the matter is increasingly unpleasant.