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

[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