The Great FFXIV Exodus of 2024

[CVXIV]

I don't think a handful of players announcing that they are going to quit is an indication for any exodus.

[Elissar]

When i started to play ffxiv some years ago, i had a gf and i was in the middle of my master degree. My exgf cheated on me during lockdowns, i am finishing my PHD and the first arc (that i used as therapy) is over. DT is alien to me, doens't appeal as i expected and i created no personal bonds with other people here. I can leave without any pain or regrets, i played my part and did my best.

[Schan]

If you look at the forums, everyone is leaving but my experience ingame has been the opposite.

I've had a couple of friends returning to the game, the usual friends are still there and my FC is actually more active than before.

[ZephyrMenodora]

There are a lot of players, like I used to be, that buy the game and play it as a single player RPG story and then leave until the next expansion.

I'm not sure how quoting 10 people here (some of which haven't actually left yet even, and can easily still be here after their supposed end date) really says much IMO. People come and go from this game all the time and there is nothing unusual. Several of those quotes you have are still here posting.

I do think the poor reception of Dawntrail's story, press about Wuk Lamat, and them extending patch times by 1-2 months will result in a natural decline in the playerbase though due to poor writing and sheer boredom. If they do not correct for this, then the future for the game will be poor.

[ElysiumDragon]

I personally expect to be like one of the remaining handful of hardcore players that still regularly play XI. This game has had an unmatched hold over me for the last decade, and I don't intend on going anywhere anytime soon if I can help it.

"But what about Dawntrail bad???"

I played Cyberpunk on launch day. If I can find enjoyment in THAT, then finding enjoyment in an alright FFXIV expansion isn't too difficult. At the moment, it's PvP, Treasure Maps, and learning Dragoon.

Question is, how many other people are like me?

[Reinha]

I don't think a handful of players announcing that they are going to quit is an indication for any exodus.

I'll quote you but the follow up questions are directed to everyone. I presented 25 players announcing their departure within a short amount of time as a sign that something unusual is taking place, because to my knowledge that has never happened until now. In the past it's been one guy making a thread and getting bye felicia'd by everyone. This is different. Has anyone seen something like this before? What would an exodus look like and how would one investigate it? Is there a form of evidence that could convince you it's happening while it's happening?

[NegativeS]

I have threatened quitting several times, but ended up coming back around because my FC is still somewhat active and I still have goals I want to achieve, outside of the miserable patch structure.

If there existed a smoking gun for me finally quitting, it would probably be the state of the XIV mobile game maybe 6 months or so after its launch compared to core XIV.

I know some other Chinese company is doing the work on it, but SE still appears to be the mouthpiece and advertiser for it... so we still have a point of comparison.

Regular conversation with mobile devs while the core devs continue layering duct tape over their mouths?
Yoshi making appearances for mobile events and on mobile conversation spaces while continuing his radio silence (outside of live letters) for the core game?
Mobile game actually having a dedicated system for collecting player feedback, and dare I say, actually implementing it? While all the core game has is this ignored forum?

Yeah, that'll do it. Core XIV would be dead since they'd effectively have shown their hand: Ace of Phones, Ace of Monetization, Ace of NFTs, Ace of Disregard, and of course the Joker, which is us, the clowns. Five of a kind.

[Doomed_Raven]

The cities are still ram packed at peak times and the duty roulettes are still healthy. Plus there's still many new players like myself.

Square Enix would have to do something monumentally disastrous to cause any kind of true exodus.

Such as what that Pokemon Go game did with the avatars, and made the women all look like men etc.

[BigCheez]

If you look at the forums, everyone is leaving but my experience ingame has been the opposite.

I've had a couple of friends returning to the game, the usual friends are still there and my FC is actually more active than before.

https://steamcharts.com/app/39210#All

Player numbers are the lowest they've been in the last 5 years.

7.0 to 7.1 saw the lowest % of the total playerbase return for a patch of all time. Every other expansion has seen 50% of the playerbase return for its x.1 patch. Only 30% came back for 7.1.

7.1 released 1 week ago and daily peaks are back down to the same numbers that they were before the patch.

You're welcome to cope but the numbers don't lie. People are leaving en masse.

[Astrus]

[...]to my knowledge that has never happened until now.[...]

It hasn't in that form. DT got a lot of people to take to the forums that hadn't bothered before and we're now also seeing a number of long-time posters announce their departure.
That much is new, if the actual number of players quitting is out of the ordinary is something we don't know however. The next census might be a rough indication on that but we're not going to get the hard numbers, their next financial report is going to show us how revenue is faring but that too isn't going to tell us exactly what is happening.