What is the most popular job in the game?

[Risvertasashi]

Spiritbinding really is one of the best (if not the best) money makers in the game. The drawback being: If you don't have the crafts/gatherers you need at 3star/4star, you're gonna have to pay the middle man on MB, that means:

1) You pay for the gatherer
2) You pay for the mat crafter
3) You pay for the item crafter

So, you're losing money 3 times for not gathering/crafting your own stuff. But you're still seeing a profit by selling Materia, just not as much

A supportive FC can let you bypass a lot of that without touching DoH/DoL.

[JimboTCB]

Based on my experiences... Ninjas everywhere, dragoons a close second, other DPS about equal. Warriors seem more popular than paladin as tanks, and scholars and white mages are split broadly down the middle.

Ultimately you should just play whatever class you find the most fun, DPS have to deal with longer queue times, but if you're good at your role and enjoy it you'll always find a place.

[Katra]

When the most recent official census was released last October, WHM was the most popular job, but not by a large percentage. It is mostly a pretty even spread. The census can be viewed here, http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/197811.

One thing to point out is that the census was taken before the release of NIN, so that job is obviously not represented. Although it is half a year old, if you are interested in looking over numbers about race, gender, roles, etc., then it makes for an interesting reed.

[aerolol]

From my experience, there's way too many bards.

It's very likely to get at least one, sometimes 2 bards, in a Dungeon roulette. (meaning no LB!! :S )
It's not unusual either to get an alliance with 10+ bards in WoD, before and after the weekly lockout. Same thing happened to LotA(CT) and ST.

For Coil, it's very unlikely to be looking for a Bard like ever.
People are usually looking for a tank, a healer or a melee and sometimes a caster, but I've yet to seen someone looking for a bard since there are so many.

[CGMidlander]

Subjectively, I see a lot of Ninjas, Bards, and Black Mages.

[Niwashi]

I expect Eorzea is soon going to be full of Dark Knights, Astrologians, and Machinists. Just like when Rogue/Ninja was first introduced, it seemed like they comprised three quarters or so of the population for a while, everyone will soon be flocking to the next bunch of new ones. (Myself included, of course.)

[AreeyaJaidee]

All jobs are interesting and balanced...

Lolz, wrong so wrong. Look at SMN vs other DPS... Smn got over nerf'd and is now an endgame joke just available for utility (may be fixed in 3.0). There's definitely not such a thing as all jobs are correctly balanced.

Still love my SMN just hope it gets revamped/unnerfd

IRT OP, I've heard many times on the forum that Ninja wins the popularity contest due to playability and looks/feel as well as comparable DPS to mnk with less hassle

[Ultear_Milkovich]

Lolz, wrong so wrong. Look at SMN vs other DPS... Smn got over nerf'd and is now an endgame joke just available for utility (may be fixed in 3.0). There's definitely not such a thing as all jobs are correctly balanced.

Still love my SMN just hope it gets revamped/unnerfd

IRT OP, I've heard many times on the forum that Ninja wins the popularity contest due to playability and looks/feel as well as comparable DPS to mnk with less hassle

SMN has MP issues in very long fights (T8 pre echo and nowadays i would say T13) but the job is OK for 95% of the content or even more. I always see SMNs parsing nice in EX trials or whatever and they add a great utility to the party. Plus they do huge damage in PVP.

Even tho if the job deserves some MP adjustment this is not a " weak " job unless you suck at it (but this works for every job)

[Ultear_Milkovich]

Lolz, wrong so wrong. Look at SMN vs other DPS... Smn got over nerf'd and is now an endgame joke just available for utility (may be fixed in 3.0). There's definitely not such a thing as all jobs are correctly balanced.

Still love my SMN just hope it gets revamped/unnerfd

IRT OP, I've heard many times on the forum that Ninja wins the popularity contest due to playability and looks/feel as well as comparable DPS to mnk with less hassle

on the other jobs. The 3 melees all have solid pros and cons but no one is unbalanced. DRG is said to be the weakest but thats only because a lot of raid teams prefer NIN + MNK.

Bards will always be required and BLMs remain kings of AOEs. I see to "weak" job here. All can be played at the highest level. No one really sucks.

[Zentsa]

My experience :

Bard > Black mage > White Mage > Paladin > Lancer > Ninja > Warrior > Scholar > Monk > Summoner