FF14 player count reached the lowest point in 4 years. We lost 75% of the playerbase.

[AnotherHighlander]

Looking at the second chart with SHB and DT, it seems like--if I'm reading it right--FF14 has fallen back to pre WoW migration numbers.

Exactly. Square Enix was handed a golden goose, and instead of spending the most miniscule amount of energy to nurture it to lay golden eggs they ignored it, made NFT games and Forspoken and just let it fly away lmao

[Striker44]

Exactly. Square Enix was handed a golden goose, and instead of spending the most miniscule amount of energy to nurture it to lay golden eggs they ignored it, made NFT games and Forspoken and just let it fly away lmao

Look at the style of WoW. Look at the style of FFXIV. They may both be MMO's, but they are very different games generally designed for very different people. Those participating in the "WoW Exodus" were by and large never going to stay, period. SE would have had to radically and fundamentally change the game if it wanted any hope of "keeping" them...and not only would they probably still have left, anyway, but it would have alienated much of FFXIV's actual core base on top of that. They were handed an illusion, and they properly recognized it as such and stuck to what makes their game successful (as others have noted, the "decline" people are mentioning is just us returning to pre-exodus levels).

People seem to ignore the fact that a downwards population trajectory in an MMO is self perpetuating

Practically every MMO population in existence is cyclical, and again, we're right where we were before the artificial inflation from the WoW exodus.

Yes, most players don't use Steam, but there is no reason to believe that those who are not on Steam feel any different about XIV than those who are.

There is. The question is whether there is a different "profile" for the kind of person more likely to sign in through one service vs. another. Now, my evidence is only anecdotal, so it can't "confirm" anything, but everyone I know that plays FFXIV and is primarily an MMO gamer doesn't use Steam. Likewise, everyone I know who plays FFXIV through Steam primarily plays other types of games (mainly FPS). What we would need is some kind of proof that the typical Steam gamer is in fact sufficiently similar in "profile" to the typical player who uses other methods to log in.

Clearly these people haven't taken many statistics classes. A sample size of roughly 1000 random people is enough to be considered a reasonable sample size in most situations. I'm not sure why they believe 95,000 doesn't.

If you're thinking the sample you're pointing to is what's meant by statistically random, I would suggest taking that statistics class.

No, but generally, the more fun a game is, the more people want to come and play it. Which was part of the reason behind the "WoW exodus" to FFXIV in the first place.

Except people didn't come to FFXIV because of "fun." They left WoW because of a mix of things, some of which was WoW destroying much of its own lore, some of which was company-related things that had nothing to even do with the game itself. They only came to FFXIV because it's the other "hot" MMO and certain streamers moved over.

Back to the OP, the claim of "we lost 75% of the playerbase" also isn't even remotely close to accurate. If you're looking at data for that purpose, you need to look at the average number of logins, not the most anomalous data point representing the peak during that time. The actual drop in average logins is only around 40%. By comparison, 8 months after the release of EW, average Steam logins were down 48%. Likewise, 8 months after the release of ShB, average Steam logins were down 39% (almost exactly the same as DT).

We're also ignoring that pre-2020, it was rare for FFXIV to go over 10k average daily logins per month. If we considered the game "awesome" and "healthy" back then, the playerbase today would be ~70% larger. It's funny how people seem to ignore that data...

[Exmo]

Look at the style of WoW. Look at the style of FFXIV. They may both be MMO's, but they are very different games generally designed for very different people. Those participating in the "WoW Exodus" were by and large never going to stay, period. SE would have had to radically and fundamentally change the game if it wanted any hope of "keeping" them...and not only would they probably still have left, anyway, but it would have alienated much of FFXIV's actual core base on top of that. They were handed an illusion, and they properly recognized it as such and stuck to what makes their game successful (as others have noted, the "decline" people are mentioning is just us returning to pre-exodus levels).



Practically every MMO population in existence is cyclical, and again, we're right where we were before the artificial inflation from the WoW exodus.



There is. The question is whether there is a different "profile" for the kind of person more likely to sign in through one service vs. another. Now, my evidence is only anecdotal, so it can't "confirm" anything, but everyone I know that plays FFXIV and is primarily an MMO gamer doesn't use Steam. Likewise, everyone I know who plays FFXIV through Steam primarily plays other types of games (mainly FPS). What we would need is some kind of proof that the typical Steam gamer is in fact sufficiently similar in "profile" to the typical player who uses other methods to log in.




If you're thinking the sample you're pointing to is what's meant by statistically random, I would suggest taking that statistics class.



Except people didn't come to FFXIV because of "fun." They left WoW because of a mix of things, some of which was WoW destroying much of its own lore, some of which was company-related things that had nothing to even do with the game itself. They only came to FFXIV because it's the other "hot" MMO and certain streamers moved over.

Back to the OP, the claim of "we lost 75% of the playerbase" also isn't even remotely close to accurate. If you're looking at data for that purpose, you need to look at the average number of logins, not the most anomalous data point representing the peak during that time. The actual drop in average logins is only around 40%. By comparison, 8 months after the release of EW, average Steam logins were down 48%. Likewise, 8 months after the release of ShB, average Steam logins were down 39% (almost exactly the same as DT).

We're also ignoring that pre-2020, it was rare for FFXIV to go over 10k average daily logins per month. If we considered the game "awesome" and "healthy" back then, the playerbase today would be ~70% larger. It's funny how people seem to ignore that data...

This is all that needs to be said. We can close the topic now.