So SE has officially stated their MMO profits have tanked.

[TimotheusReed]

If we go with 'new player starting off and excited for the story' as well, I still can't see people staying. No matter who I've tried to suggest, they leave, because the slog of ARR is drawn out so much & not captivating at all.

I always wonder how many of those people are "real" new players to the MMO genre. Because every time people tell me they wanted to bring friends into the game and they left because of ARR it was ALWAYS WoW players.
I honestly don't consider WoW players who try out FF14 as real "new players", because very often WoW players already start most MMOs with the WoW-mindset (which often means rushing to endgame) and don't really approach games like other new players. They often already treat every new MMO they start like WoW.

I honestly rarely see people who played other MMOs or played other games which are not WoW do the same. It honestly seems to me like WoW had ruined the mindset of some its players long-term, which is why many of them usually skip everything and don't even read quest texts.

I had very good experiences with new players who never played WoW and usually those people stuck.

On the other hand I tried to bring two WoW players into this game and they usually rushed the leveling, skipped every cutscene and tried to rush till endgame until they eventually quit.
But I honestly would say they ruined the game for themselves by approaching it with the same mindset they did in WoW.

So I am always interested when someone is talking about "new players" which they tried to get into the game and that quit in ARR, if those are WoW players, because usually I am right.