That Which He Does Not Play

[kaynide]

I mean, if the game was truly hemorrhaging players, why then is there plans to add more servers?

Sure, if someone joined during the WoW exodus with other WoW players who played and decided it wasn’t for them them then yeah, you would see a lot of like minded people leaving. Doesn’t mean the entire game matches that.

You also can’t compare stats month to month as there are ups and downs in the expansion cycle. You will always see a huge boost when a new expac drops, with a steady wave of up/down til the next drop. Rather look at it in something like a 2 year block.

If you want to talk actual numbers in a 2 year block, you can get an idea looking at Steam stats. You will see September 2020 sitting at about 19k on steam. This went way up as Endwalker was nearing release in 2021 to like 31k. Now that we’re back to lull time it’s down to 26kish, but still higher than the last lull in 2020.

Link https://steamcharts.com/app/39210

[VelKallor]

Steam stats

Righttt...when the VAST majority use the windows launcher.

Try again.

[kaynide]

Righttt...when the VAST majority use the windows launcher.

Try again.

The burden of proof is on you, bro.

If you don’t have proof or sources, all you have are opinions.

[Lauront]

I mean, if the game was truly hemorrhaging players, why then is there plans to add more servers?

When were such plans announced/formulated? My guess is they were based on expectations from high player counts being added at the time what with the WoW 'exodus'. I'm curious what the current status of these plans is, and the reasoning behind it. Incidentally, it is that same exodus that has made it seem like the figures are haemorrhaging. You're not wrong in pointing out that the game is steadily adding over time, but the bigger question to me is whether the actual player numbers are matching up to whatever expectations and ambitions SE has when it's investing into the game. Funnily enough, LB commented directly on the steam figures and their server plans in the past June and April surveys he did, expressing some measure of concern. We still have a high proportion in the most recent survey of characters who have yet to fully clear EW. I am interested to see how well the expansion will do in retaining them over time. It is fair to ask if it is doing as well as it could be in retaining its players.

[Lieri]

Reality check: he probably works more than 8 hours per day. And that he plays ocassionaly to help test something in game according to work schedules.

Do you really believe he spends hours and hours to actually enjoy and play the game? just because he shows his black mage from time to time doesnt mean that. So I dont understand this thread.

Yoshi P is not your Limsa cat girl who has the same faces playing 20 hrs a day.

[Kazhar]

Righttt...when the VAST majority use the windows launcher.

Try again.

Shouldn't Steam stats still be good enough to indicate a trend though? Like anything, yes, they're not representative of the entire playerbase but it's incredibly unlikely that only Steam players would be quitting the game. I don't think there's a significant difference of demographic between Steam users and other PC users.
You guys were also the ones who used Metacritic to prove your point when it suited you and it's literally just 1.2k reviews on a third party website (Not even a tenth of the max number of daily concurrent users on Steam).
Plus, the decrease of players is also supported by Luckybancho, which are probably the most accurate numbers we'll ever get.

[Saraide]

Shouldn't Steam stats still be good enough to indicate a trend though? Like anything, yes, they're not representative of the entire playerbase but it's incredibly unlikely that only Steam players would be quitting the game. I don't think there's a significant difference of demographic between Steam users and other PC users.
You guys were also the ones who used Metacritic to prove your point when it suited you and it's literally just 1.2k reviews on a third party website (Not even a tenth of the max number of daily concurrent users on Steam).
Plus, the decrease of players is also supported by Luckybancho, which are probably the most accurate numbers we'll ever get.

Yes, with how many people play the game on steam it is absolutely a valid sample size. IIRC 800 is roughly the point where a sample size becomes big enough to account for statistical error. At a glance on steamcharts the avg player numbers have been pretty stable at around 25k since april. March has been a low at around 17k average. I'm no expert in statistics so if those numbers are indicative of the game heavily bleeding player numbers, someone needs to explain how.

[LianaThorne]

Yes, with how many people play the game on steam it is absolutely a valid sample size. IIRC 800 is roughly the point where a sample size becomes big enough to account for statistical error. At a glance on steamcharts the avg player numbers have been pretty stable at around 25k since april. March has been a low at around 17k average. I'm no expert in statistics so if those numbers are indicative of the game heavily bleeding player numbers, someone needs to explain how.

To be fair, the game is in the red more often than not compared to previous years (I took a peek at the chart for the game on Steam). You can compare January 2022-September 2022 & January 2021 - September 2021 as an example. So, that does say something. Could argue covid having an effect on things in 2021 but the lack of growth outside of patch times now is still concerning. Especially since some people act like Endwalker is God's gift to the FF community.

I wouldn't say the game is bleeding users though because the RP scene is obviously alive and well and people are still logging in to do their weekly clears/other content, but I've definitely noticed more people having issues with this expac and considering to take time off till the graphics overhaul were getting in 7.0 in the hopes that things will improve.

[Saraide]

To be fair, the game is in the red more often than not compared to previous years (I took a peek at the chart for the game on Steam). You can compare January 2022-September 2022 & January 2021 - September 2021 as an example. So, that does say something. Could argue covid having an effect on things in 2021 but the lack of growth outside of patch times now is still concerning. Especially since some people act like Endwalker is God's gift to the FF community.

I wouldn't say the game is bleeding users though because the RP scene is obviously alive and well and people are still logging in to do their weekly clears/other content, but I've definitely noticed more people having issues with this expac and considering to take time off till the graphics overhaul were getting in 7.0 in the hopes that things will improve.

Yea what does it say?

[kaynide]

Yea what does it say?

The sad thing is people not willing to do due diligence on what those numbers mean and just yell doom and gloom.

If they checked, they’d see years when an expac is new, numbers swell. The lull years, decrease.

People keep trying to compare 2022 to 2021 without understanding this..making such comparisons useless. A more apt comparison would be 2020 to 2022.

No hate meant to anyone, but people gotta do that due diligence.