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

[Clockworks]

While the player base is smaller, it's no where near 75%.



Steam does NOT and has never accounted for the majority of players.




Most players either use consoles or the official launcher.


"omg playerbase is down 75%" and producing statistics for the minority platform is just being ignorant.

Yall never learn that steam is big enough of a sample do you ?

[DPZ2]

Yall never learn that steam is big enough of a sample do you ?

It's just not a "random" sample, and it doesn't provide numbers for active subscriptions, only concurrent active players across a 24-hour period, then averaged over a month.

What is a better indicator of player numbers with subscriptions is the Operating Expense [ie Profit] lines of Square Enix's quarterly reports, assuming that DQ10 and FF11 are constants.

An example, they've changed their format from FY 2024, which did not break down operating income beyond Digital Entertainment as a whole:

MMO: Operating income up on launch of latest “FINAL FANTASY XIV” expansion pack
Net Sales: ¥44.0 billion
(Prior FY: ¥34.8 billion/ up ¥9.2 billion YoY)
Operating Income: ¥17.3 billion
(Prior FY: ¥14.4 billion/ up ¥2.9 billion YoY)


I imagine quite a bit of that 9 billion yen increase in net sales for FY2025 Q1-Q3 can be attributed to Dawntrail Expansion sales.

[Supersnow845]

It's just not a "random" sample, and it doesn't provide numbers for active subscriptions, only concurrent active players across a 24-hour period, then averaged over a month.

What is a better indicator of player numbers with subscriptions is the Operating Expense [ie Profit] lines of Square Enix's quarterly reports, assuming that DQ10 and FF11 are constants.

An example, they've changed their format from FY 2024, which did not break down operating income beyond Digital Entertainment as a whole:

MMO: Operating income up on launch of latest “FINAL FANTASY XIV” expansion pack
Net Sales: ¥44.0 billion
(Prior FY: ¥34.8 billion/ up ¥9.2 billion YoY)
Operating Income: ¥17.3 billion
(Prior FY: ¥14.4 billion/ up ¥2.9 billion YoY)


I imagine quite a bit of that 9 billion yen increase in net sales for FY2025 Q1-Q3 can be attributed to Dawntrail Expansion sales.

DT sold well initially nobody denies that

DT selling well is meaningless next to the fact that the playerbase cratered after we discovered DT is not good

Using operating income is one of the worst measures to discuss population

[DPZ2]

Using operating income is one of the worst measures to discuss population

You're actually asserting that profits for a subscription-based game are one of the worst measures to determine whether the base of paying subscribers cratered?

[Supersnow845]

You're actually asserting that profits for a subscription-based game are one of the worst measures to determine whether the base of paying subscribers cratered?

Yes specifically because as a comparative example

OSRS and RS3 make the same profit per year

OSRS has TEN times RS3’s playerbase

You’ve basically pointed out that EW sold DT and that profit went up in the year DT released over the flat EW drought the year before and claimed that’s evidence the population didn’t collapse after DT released

[DPZ2]

...

Where, exactly, did you obtain financials for Old School Runescape and Runescape 3? The last good set of financials from Jagex was 2022. The February 2024 purchase by CVC Capital Partners means that anything Jagex does specifically no longer has reportable numbers. Jagex's only Legal reports at this time are the Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement (2023) and Gender Pay Gap Reports (2022-2023). A quick peek at CVC Capital Partners acknowedges Jagex as part of their acquisitions in 2024, but nothing more.

I can easily [Reddit post] find numbers for 2021 (120 million pounds in net sales), and an estimate of a total of 1.1 million players, but not the 10 to 1 playerbase numbers you pulled out of ... where?

To be fair, you tried to obfuscate the actual question asked by performing a meaningless comparison to another set of MMORPGs for which you weren't asked. And, of course, OSRS and RS3 make the same profit because that profit is a single number for the company, rather than two separate numbers. No "Squirrel!" for you.

[Supersnow845]

Where, exactly, did you obtain financials for Old School Runescape and Runescape 3? The last good set of financials from Jagex was 2022. The February 2024 purchase by CVC Capital Partners means that anything Jagex does specifically no longer has reportable numbers. Jagex's only Legal reports at this time are the Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement (2023) and Gender Pay Gap Reports (2022-2023). A quick peek at CVC Capital Partners acknowedges Jagex as part of their acquisitions in 2024, but nothing more.

I can easily [Reddit post] find numbers for 2021 (120 million pounds in net sales), and an estimate of a total of 1.1 million players, but not the 10 to 1 playerbase numbers you pulled out of ... where?

To be fair, you tried to obfuscate the actual question asked by performing a meaningless comparison to another set of MMORPGs for which you weren't asked. And, of course, OSRS and RS3 make the same profit because that profit is a single number for the company, rather than two separate numbers. No "Squirrel!" for you.

https://find-and-update.company-info...history?page=1

Here’s the separated financial statement of the games if you were interested, current playerbase of the game is public knowledge as the game doesn’t hide its server status

Regardless I simply used that as an example of operating revenue not telling the story of the playerbase

You yourself have yet explain why high sales from DT’s initial release is somehow evidence that the game didn’t crater AFTER DT released