FFXIV population decline continues

[Miohazuki]

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-14-active-players-large-drop-below-1-million/

Thoughts on this article and are you at all worried about the games trajectory?

i find people to do content and play the game with .pretty much non issue for me

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Delubrum was already mostly a pf things during ShB particularly after they increased the rewards, it was a nice way to farm relics when you could do it in 15min, and during that time you could find 10+pf during peak hours[...]

Not to my experience. I recalled finishing all the Augmented Law Order phase before they nerfed/increased the rewards given & during those periods, pug queues were still pretty much popping under 10m or so. Now obviously they don't finish the run under 25m outside unusual times where 16+ players knows what to do and brings useful essences. But they're far from being "mostly". The split between pug and PF (at least in Aether) was only becoming more noticeable during 5.55-5.58 content draught, at which point pug queues begin to diminish.

I don't know how different things were in EU, so YMMW.

[Miohazuki]

I believe there are a few main reasons for the FFXIV population decline. There is a not insignificant number of people (and growing) who have become exhausted with the job and battle mechanics, and general homogenization and lack of complexity or decision-making within the game combat. Folks looking for a game which requires more than pattern memorization are starting to look elsewhere.

There's also the argument for lack of casual and/or mid-core content. Also lack of any long form grindable content. SE has done a pretty good job with bringing the more difficult "party finder" content to the game, but that even now is only servicing a small portion of the playerbase. The larger majority currently has nothing to do, and hasn't pretty much since DT launch. They are steadily leaving the game due to lack of content. This has always been strange to me because FFXIV is a big enough game, and makes enough money to have a team capable of putting out content for all types of people without sacrificing what they are already doing. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Everyone can be served, but that's not happening.

On a personal note my sub is expiring tomorrow and I have no intention or renewing it. I may come back for 7.2, but we'll have to see what that patch actually provides. If there simply isn't enough to do I won't bother, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. This may turn out to be a "wait for 8.0" situation, but we'll see.

take your rest warrior of light and come back when you feel like it

[Connor]

But where is everyone going?! The next content is only 4 months away! Aren’t you all so excited so for this content patch that’s so far away you’re guaranteed so forget it’s even coming? And it likely won’t even add any worthwhile content until a couple weeks after the patch! Man I love having to wait for the patch so I can wait for the [sub]patch
/s

[EmeraldSerenade]

I feel like Square relies too much on fan loyalty, which has made them complacent.

[PaulusHamsteru]

I hope it keeps declining. They need a wake up call.

[Mesarthim]

Funny part is my friend usually likes to skip the story but liked any ascian parts. Dawntrail was the first expansion where he read the story.

I basically told him "You picked a bad time to start reading the story lol." Even I am barely on for an hour a day doing... daily stuff, which I probably don't even need to be. Nothing I do is really current content unless a roulette throws me into it for the nth time.

[Zelda206]

With a written statement from SE that involves "denial of personality" for their employees/partners, I would imagine even peaceful customers that keep to themselves would feel a touch bristled, perhaps bristled enough to leave due to how that can be interpreted on the western side of things, and how much damage and drama it's caused in whatever media and community it's touched. Customers may disagree with the opinions of staff members or partners, especially artists like voice-actors, but that isn't a denial of personality; no one can deny a personality. They can argue it, debate it, disagree with it, dismiss it, but they cannot 'deny' it. It's someone's fantasy, not theirs. They can only deny subscribing to it, which is their right, however if that constitutes as 'denial of personality', then we have a major problem. Legal action should already be taken if life-threatening or harmful actions are being taken against employees/partners, but the statement leaves room for interpretation and gives enough flexibility to empower (especially the English team) the partners into claiming what is/isn't considered 'harmful' (like hurt feelings or a return-to-sender response from the community in response to a gaslighting quip from a partner or employee) and exacting a twisted sense of revenge while using Square Enix's shadow to show intimidation. It isn't necessarily what is going to happen, but it's a huge possibility and implied that should any emotional harm come to the partners/employees, or continual 'defamation' of the sparse content in their products, there will be legal action taken. It comes off as a veiled threat with how it is written. So Final Fantasy XIV's gradual decline in player population isn't totally accredited to the statement, since the lack of goodwill and quality content chocked full of things to do seems to be doing that already, but it's now a catalyst to continue bleeding numbers.

Regardless of personal stance, this is the general consensus and the biggest detail that has been scrutinized from the official statement, and has been spreading around through the media since. It will be interesting to see how the year 2025 shapes up as we move forward and the numbers fluctuate.

[Dogempire]

Probably not an issue. There's little to no appeal at the moment for casual gamers with the content actually expecting people to put in effort to complete it, no exploration zone for grindcore content, and little to no 4 player party or solo content.

Yeah, I've done a few savage tiers but nowadays I'm just... really not interested in playing "Everyone does the mechanics 100% correctly or everyone explodes"

Having to co-ordinate with strangers with varying degrees of capabilities and being held back by the lowest common denominator gets very old after a little while, would like more content that either doesn't punish mistakes as harshly or is completely solo so you can suffer through your own mistakes, also content like Bozja offering differing types of buffs to spice up gameplay adds a lot when it comes to casual content.

[Chasingstars]

Yoshida (2016, Gamescon): "It's alright not to play it everyday. Since it's just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it's hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it'll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart's content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game."

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, and come back when you want to."

So people are just taking his advice. Nothing else to see here as people are playing other things since they did the content they wanted to. I am personally just going through a back catalogue of games I have like RDR2 or Elden Ring.