FF14 player count reached the lowest point in 4 years. We lost 75% of the playerbase.

[Daralii]

Not even remotely true.

"We planned to use 5.0 till 7.0 to end our decade-long Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc and bring everything to its climax. Originally, 6.0 was meant to focus on the Garlean Empire. However, 5.0's reception exceeded our expectations, so we decided to condense the Empire's storyline to allow for greater developments."

https://reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscussion...n_taiwan_2025/
Posting a Reddit link with a translation because the actual transcript is obviously in Chinese.