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

[Voidmage]

snip

DT had a gigantic starting population which shows that people were actually interested in the new story forward.

Even IF that stance was true, it would simply show that people were only staying around to see the end of the story arc and the game is simply not good enough to hold their interest.
No matter how often some people want to repeat that argument, the point is that this game failed to hold players, be it veterans, WoW refugees or new players.

The whole "we are going back to normal numbers" is also nonsense.
Imagine Yoshida in a meeting with the higher ups saying "it's fine, we only go back to normal numbers".
There is a reason why he stopped saying "play other games" or why we finally see at least promises of changes.

It's honestly crazy to me that some people repeatedly forget (or don't want to see) that this whole game is a business first and foremost and losing players to this extend is definitely not normal and not wanted.
The extreme defenders are as idiotic as the extreme doomers at this point.
No, the game won't die but it is not in a healthy place either right now.

[Supersnow845]

If anything the fact that DT had a lower rate of new starting players than 6.55 showed that the existing capped and higher level playerbase DID explicitly give DT a chance; as they were literally the only ones who actually played DT at launch

Everyone gave DT a chance, DT just didn’t remotely deliver and now the remaining vets are pissed off while the new playerbase has cratered and the WOW refugees are forgotten

[Crafoutis]

For me the DT story went over like a wet fart in an elevator, which was only made worse by the fact that I loved SB->EW so much.

I can completely understand players getting tonal whiplash from such great characters and writing in EW, only to be served up Wuk Lamat and the Series of Irrational Decisions.

[Infindox]

Not even being doomer, but all you have to do is log in and see how few people there are hanging around, even on Aether.
I've been around since patch HW and have never seen the pop so low during a lull in content, even in Endwalker patches I saw more people hanging around.
The hunt train argument doesn't hold a lot of weight because that's a certain part of the community that loves doing that every day and making trains for it; there will always be people around doing that.

[Kaurhz]

I think a lot of people were initially actually excited for the story including myself, as I think many were looking forward to a fresh story and beginning, and then people just found out after-the-fact that the story wasn't any good whatsoever in their perspective and dropped it pretty quickly, like, people were openly discussing about skipping all the cutscenes and story, especially after the disaster that they saw with the initial post-expansion story.

Like a massive number of people actually gave the expansion a chance, they were just simply woefully disappointed by it, and I think this expansion has just simply opened peoples' minds of the fact that when they are on FFXIV they aren't really playing a video game as much as they are just engaging with an unhealthy algorithm masquerading as a video game.

Like sure, people are still playing, and he number drops on a relative % may not be entirely out of the norm, but for a lot of people this has turned from being their main 'game' to just the game that they come back to when there's nothing better to do, which is also why the game feels so lifeless IMO.

[Sunhwapark]

but for a lot of people this has turned from being their main 'game' to just the game that they come back to when there's nothing better to do, which is also why the game feels so lifeless IMO.

It does feel this way.
I don't have a gigantic pool of friends - but I used to see so many more people online on my friends list or linkshells, but nowadays most people I've known have put the game down entirely since DT.

[Kaurhz]

It does feel this way.
I don't have a gigantic pool of friends - but I used to see so many more people online on my friends list or linkshells, but nowadays most people I've known have put the game down entirely since DT.

It has been this case for me tbh.... For a long time... Like, I would not miss a PLL, if I had nothing planned I may book a little time off from work to do patch with friends, would still login daily, whether that's for achievements or whatever else, e.g., doing relics.

These days I honestly struggle to even care... I've not done a single relic from this expansion, and this comes from someone who has done every single relic, I would always grind out the relics for DoH/L, yet I have them half-done so far, because why bother...? When Occult Crescent dropped I was in Hydatos helping a friend..., and I was unironically envious of the free trial players in there...

I've not put this game down permanently yet, but this game is basically there as a last resort when there's nothing better to get on with, or when I am playing a game, just finished a chapter and it's late at night, then maybe I login for half an hour rather than start a new chapter or part. It's the same thing with the FC I'm in, and most of my friends list is barren

[Azurarok]

The conductors for hunt trains in my server usually choose whether to wait for people to load in between maps based on how many people join, but lately they're usually all bullet trains without those vibes. I've rarely ever been in those during Endwalker.

Also things melt quickly because they haven't encouraged players to slow dps and play tank/healer or put away chocobos lately. I see a lot of chocobos and players unloading their full burst on these now

[Hyperia]

For me the DT story went over like a wet fart in an elevator, which was only made worse by the fact that I loved SB->EW so much.

I can completely understand players getting tonal whiplash from such great characters and writing in EW, only to be served up Wuk Lamat and the Series of Irrational Decisions.

It didn’t help that the story devs for DT were essentially a new team and we got a preview of their work in 6.1 to 6.5. I was worried but I stuck it out, my fears were proved correct when DT hit and it looks like SE may have pulled some of their vets back to the game late in the 7.x patches to try and right the ship.

Sadly, the damage is done and we lost a lot of players permanently or at the very least, until they see reviews of the game, not from 8.0 but more like 8.3. Many I know want to see a long term trend before they spend money again. I’m expecting preorders for 8.0 to be much lower than past expansions, probably close to ShB.

[Daralii]

It didn’t help that the story devs for DT were essentially a new team and we got a preview of their work in 6.1 to 6.5. I was worried but I stuck it out, my fears were proved correct when DT hit and it looks like SE may have pulled some of their vets back to the game late in the 7.x patches to try and right the ship.

Sadly, the damage is done and we lost a lot of players permanently or at the very least, until they see reviews of the game, not from 8.0 but more like 8.3. Many I know want to see a long term trend before they spend money again. I’m expecting preorders for 8.0 to be much lower than past expansions, probably close to ShB.

They were new to the role, but they were hardly new to writing in XIV. The lead had been doing side stories since 3.0, worked on MSQ patches in SB, and was Matsuno's right hand for all the Ivalice content.