FFXIV population decline continues

[ZephyrMenodora]

It's a plenty large enough sample size.

But what it is tracking is the most active players on an achievement ranking board. The players that spend the most time looking for achievements are going to be over-represented when it comes to doing savage compared to the average player which doesn't even get imported.

[BigCheez]

But what it is tracking is the most active players on an achievement ranking board. The players that spend the most time looking for achievements are going to be over-represented when it comes to doing savage compared to the average player which doesn't even get imported.

The data is taken from Lodestone.

[ZephyrMenodora]

The data is taken from Lodestone.

And it only gathers certain characters. The most active of all players with the highest number of achievements. The fact it only has gathered 226K is telling.

It also thinks 77% of all players have 500 or more commendations....

[NamiRocket]

It's a plenty large enough sample size.

The size isn't the problem, my man. It's not an accurate representation of the subscriber count. It's pulling from flawed data.

The only people who can tell us what the subscriber count is are at Square Enix and they unfortunately don't share that info. So people are left to make educated guesses using imperfect methods like the one you're pointing to. And that's ultimately all it is... a guess. So, while I'm sure the subscriber count has dipped, the info you're pointing to as proof of that really should not be taken as gospel.

[DynnDiablos]

For me, there is just a profound sadness. I will shoot off my mouth on here, yes, but ultimately as a casual player who has played since the ARR beta and has spent 11 years of my life with this game being a part of it, it sucks to see it fall into this pattern of drawn out patch cycles with very little content in each (at least for me). The game is absolutely shifting its focus to players who love hardcore content, raiders and seems to be listening to the XIV content creators and what they want more than the actual player base. And listen, everyone plays for different reasons but its the content cadence schedule that is the problem.

If long-term, casual content dropped in 7.1 - it would hold those of us over who have ZERO interest in savage, ultimate and chaotic when those players get their drops. Instead we are left with nothing for huge bouts of time. I've learned to accept this is the direction FF14 will most likely continue in, so there's not much I can really do about it. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

Folks will say, well there is a lot to do but you choose not to do it. Yes, you're right. I don't like hard fights that I find stressful. It's not why I play. And XIV has always been more of a single player RPG in an MMO wrapping. I also struggle with memory issues and visual cue stuff, so many of these harder fights are very hard for me to do. I could watch videos over and over and see repeated mechanics over and over, and still I would not remember them. I can get by with normal content and raids because I've done them enough and they aren't as punishing, and I also refuse to be a burden on other people.

Yes, I've been angry on these forums about the state of the game for casuals (and justifiably so). Other players on here seem to think we should be the ones to adapt and try harder content, but the truth is many of us don't want to because we simply don't find hours of progging, dying and learning a fight like that fun. It's really that simple.

So, just quit. Well, it's easy to say that, but this game has been a special part of my life for over a decade. It's not so simple as just quit. However, I am reaching that point. And I truly feel, for me, to make the break it would need to be a permanent blowing up of the bridge. A complete character and account deletion with zero ties left. I haven't reached that point yet, but I am so so close. If the story was at least keeping me interested there would be a silver lining, but this new writing team ain't it. And I have found 7.0 and 7.1 to be some of the worst storytelling I've ever experienced.

So, ultimately, I find myself at a crossroads (no pun intended). What I ultimately decide to do will fall to what the 7.2 and 7.3 content cadence looks like. If casual content gets pushed further to 7.4 and 7.5, I doubt I last to that.

[Gurgeh]

...
The game is absolutely shifting its focus to players who love hardcore content, raiders and seems to be listening to the XIV content creators and what they want more than the actual player base...


So, just quit. Well, it's easy to say that, but this game has been a special part of my life for over a decade. It's not so simple as just quit. However, I am reaching that point. And I truly feel, for me, to make the break it would need to be a permanent blowing up of the bridge. A complete character and account deletion with zero ties left. I haven't reached that point yet, but I am so so close. If the story was at least keeping me interested there would be a silver lining, but this new writing team ain't it. And I have found 7.0 and 7.1 to be some of the worst storytelling I've ever experienced.

....

Sorry to hear all this.
Please don't delete your account or character. Just in case
Maybe because you entirely don't need to.
I'm confident that if you have a break for long enough, then when you come back, you'll find you don't have the social circle anymore, you went be having a lot of fun, and you will likely leave again soon after.
Just in case dint delete your account, because it's not necessary.

As for the content creators, they used to have fantastic ambassadors for casual like Zepla. It's ironic if that's what they have been doing, because all I've been doing is down voting Chaotic videos to try and get the message through to YouTube to take them out of my personal suggestions. One particular content creator I just flat told you tube not to recommend them at all for anything ever again. I don't like being condescended to in my personal space. Other creators the time has been, some creators the tone has been smug and taunting. But I rarely ever see them in my suggestions so, whatever.
There now aren't any XIV creators that YouTube suggests to me and there haven't been in a long time.

[BigCheez]

The size isn't the problem, my man. It's not an accurate representation of the subscriber count. It's pulling from flawed data.

The only people who can tell us what the subscriber count is are at Square Enix and they unfortunately don't share that info. So people are left to make educated guesses using imperfect methods like the one you're pointing to. And that's ultimately all it is... a guess. So, while I'm sure the subscriber count has dipped, the info you're pointing to as proof of that really should not be taken as gospel.

Life must be so much simpler when your head is buried this far in the sand.

[Grumblecakes]

Sorry to hear all this.
Please don't delete your account or character. Just in case
Maybe because you entirely don't need to.
I'm confident that if you have a break for long enough, then when you come back, you'll find you don't have the social circle anymore, you went be having a lot of fun, and you will likely leave again soon after.
Just in case dint delete your account, because it's not necessary.

As for the content creators, they used to have fantastic ambassadors for casual like Zepla. It's ironic if that's what they have been doing, because all I've been doing is down voting Chaotic videos to try and get the message through to YouTube to take them out of my personal suggestions. One particular content creator I just flat told you tube not to recommend them at all for anything ever again. I don't like being condescended to in my personal space. Other creators the time has been, some creators the tone has been smug and taunting. But I rarely ever see them in my suggestions so, whatever.
There now aren't any XIV creators that YouTube suggests to me and there haven't been in a long time.

"Content creator" is not an accurate term imo. Sure, they may have started as a content creator who loved a game, (FFXIV for this example). But the moment they get a taste of success and viewers start tossing money at them and superchats, then its not about content or the game. It is about money. By any means necessary, and by saying or doing anything needed for the precious algorithm. Any popular content creator is a fraud that will lie as much as they need to if it brings in more subs. I don't get the appeal. They are just as bad as a stuffy, corporate suit trying to increase profit every quarter.

[Jeeqbit]

Are you suggesting there are only 226K characters in this game? Because if you believe that 22.3% of the entire playerbase is 50,387 characters I don't know what to tell you.

The stat is similar if you do it with minions and mounts which don't just include collectors on collecting websites. Also, Lucky Bancho's stats agree that the clear rates are this high.

I'm not sure where this site (MMO-population) gets their numbers from.

It gets them from reddit. In other words, that website is bogus. Probably whipped up as a quick cashgrab by AI.

The sort of proper stat work that gets done is from Lucky Bancho, ffxiv census, Square Enix itself, all FFXIV fan websites and discords that can see insights and visitor numbers, and the raw number of total characters made which is over 30 million.

[CaedemSanguis]

without those people you wouldn't have a game be a HC raider on haha remember that more then 90% of the player base is casual and you also have roleplayers midcore players that have been left in the dust since endwalker

Yeah I know

But if I was a casual player I will just sub 1 month/expansion (and casual player should do this, and well if they dont, I'll keep having content and still unsub for 12-15 month/expansion)