We lost 70% of our player base half a year in

[Thurmnmurmn]

No, you are using the statistics to make them fit what you want, a 25% loss is still a 25% loss. Even if lets say the increase at the expansion release (example) was 500%, and then in 3 months the loss is 25%, it's still a 25% loss.

Yeah and in comparison to previous expansions (which shows a trend of this), those losses are normal. Claiming the game is dead would imply our numbers are worst off than before but if we look at the same patch cycles in the past we see that's not true.

I never denied the game loss players. Again, that's normal when looking at statistics.

[Stormpeaks]

Yeah and in comparison to previous expansions (which shows a trend of this), those losses are normal. Claiming the game is dead would imply our numbers are worst off than before but if we look at the same patch cycles in the past we see that's not true.

I never denied the game loss players. Again, that's normal when looking at statistics.

I never said the game was dead, someone else said that.

And no, losing players is not "normal", if the game had good player retention, there wouldnt be this amount of % losses every patch because everyone leaves it a week in the patch as there is nothing to do. Small losses would be fine, but not a 25% loss, that's not normal.

There is no changing yall's opinions and honestly I cba, enjoy coping, it's getting boring to repeat myself over and over and over and over again.

[Thurmnmurmn]

I never said the game was dead, someone else said that.

And no, losing players is not "normal", if the game had good player retention, there wouldnt be this amount of % losses every patch because everyone leaves it a week in the patch as there is nothing to do. Small losses would be fine, but not a 25% loss, that's not normal.

Laughing at anyone saying the game is thriving/doing well and saying they are using copium all the time does heavily imply you believe the opposite.

And yes this is normal in the perspective of using statistics to see player patterns.

[Aword3213]

I never said the game was dead, someone else said that.

And no, losing players is not "normal", if the game had good player retention, there wouldnt be this amount of % losses every patch because everyone leaves it a week in the patch as there is nothing to do. Small losses would be fine, but not a 25% loss, that's not normal.

Maybe we can look at other games in the same genre as well?

Every sub based games loses a portion of players in each patches cycle. Is the percentage of player lose in FFXIV staying in reasonable range in each patch cycle? Do you consider it normal?

If the average percentage of player lose in FFXIV is somewhere in the middle or below other sub based games, do you consider it normal?

[DPZ2]

You can see in this thread, that many people dont understand the word "statistic" and think that for sure, for sure other client users are different.

I've pretty much ignored that argument in my own recent posts. Here's another chart from the FFXIV SteamCharts. Let's use this to discuss drops in the player base, shall we?



The Steam player base was relatively flat from 2014 through 2019. Note the 'peak players' point in mid-2018, 10,272. Move directly to the right to the end of the last dip. That number is currently 33,821. Conclusion? The game now attracts 3 times as many active players as it did 5 years ago.

It's an inaccurate conclusion though. Peak is fun to look at (that 95,102 peak in late 2021 is the release of Endwalker) but doesn't really tell us much about the actual number of players who play the game.

Average Players (the lower solid graph) is the number of Steam players who are playing the game, sampled at regular intervals every day, averaged for the month. I suspect that number is sampled every hour, leaving us with around 720 data points each month. Note that this number drops during non-prime time and rises during prime time.

The lower graph is the average player count over the years, February 2014 through current date. The value for left side of the chart is 3,577.8. The value for the right side of the chart is 20,391.4. Conclusion? The game now attracts 5.6 times as many players as it did 9 years ago. That is the definition of a game that is successful.

What is missing from this chart? An interpretation for the peaks and valleys. I can pretty much guarantee that the peak in 2017 was the release of Stormblood, the peak in 2019 was Shadowbringers release, the peaks in 2021 correspond to the Great Awakening and subsequent influx of WoW players looking for the Next Best Thing and the release of Endwalker.

Does all of this data tell us anything about subscriptions? Only that there are at least 5+ times as many players paying for a subscription via Steam than there were back in 2014.

[Tahbitha]

I have been playing the game for quite a while now. Yes, I've had some times when I temporarily cancelled my subscription but I started the game in 2021 (finished Stormblood last night, loved it!)

If FF XIV is losing players, why do I still have a login queue every night? And it is the same wait time now as it was in 2021, give or take a few seconds...

[DPZ2]

If a game, especially MMO, loses so much 70% of player base, it's very unwise to keep subbing.

As I have discussed in earlier posts, that 'peak players' statistic (used to indicate a 70% drop) is a worthless value when one wants to discuss the number of actual daily players who use a Steam account for their subscription.

The average of the 'average players' column over the last year is 23,672.59.

In March 2023, that value was 21,718.3, which is 91% of the average for the year. In December 2022 that number was 18,445.6, which is over 3,000 players less than March 2023! That is not a 70% drop using anyone's math.

So, stop writing "lost 70% of player base". The number is false. That argument is so bad that even basic statistics denies the claim.

[Stormpeaks]

I have been playing the game for quite a while now. Yes, I've had some times when I temporarily cancelled my subscription but I started the game in 2021 (finished Stormblood last night, loved it!)

If FF XIV is losing players, why do I still have a login queue every night? And it is the same wait time now as it was in 2021, give or take a few seconds...

That totally cant be because of the hundreds of lala bots under Limsa and every main city that are logging in and out 24/7, nah that cant be

Also the post below me is right.

[Larirawiel]

If FF XIV is losing players, why do I still have a login queue every night? And it is the same wait time now as it was in 2021, give or take a few seconds...

The login queue is there because of how the login process works. The login server connects the players with their worlds in batches. So it is very easy to get a login queue even when the server is pretty empty.



Cheers

[Aword3213]

As I have discussed in earlier posts, that 'peak players' statistic (used to indicate a 70% drop) is a worthless value when one wants to discuss the number of actual daily players who use a Steam account for their subscription.

The average of the 'average players' column over the last year is 23,672.59.

In March 2023, that value was 21,718.3, which is 91% of the average for the year. In December 2022 that number was 18,445.6, which is over 3,000 players less than March 2023! That is not a 70% drop using anyone's math.

So, stop writing "lost 70% of player base". The number is false. That argument is so bad that even basic statistics denies the claim.

I mean, the OP and many others support this claim. I just went along.

If a game actually lost 70% of players like doomsayers claim, the game is factually dead. Not dying, Dead.

So my advice to them is stop paying sub. This is a genuine advice. Don't pay your hard earned money on a dead game. Don't spend time and energy on a dead game. You can't revive the dead.

70% is a very serious number. Many contents in FFXIV wouldn't even doable. It will be extremely difficult to form Savage raid parties. Roulette won't work. Players will have hard time trading items because market died. S rank or even A rank hunts on current expac will be impossible to kill. Treasure map dungeons are impossible to do. The list goes on.

FFXIV will be unplayable in literal sense.