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

[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

[CuteBucket]

These days I honestly struggle to even care...

I'm pretty much the same. I haven't quite thrown in the towel yet, maybe it's just the ol' sunk cost or fringes of hope that it will improve again, but I barely log in anymore. Lots of people I once played with have left now. Sometimes I used to stay up late because I was so excited for the next PLL and getting that first sneak peak of new content. Now I don't even know when the next PLL or patch is coming out. I was really hoping Occult Crescent would be fun because I really enjoyed Eureka (mostly) and Bozja, but OC just bored me so much and I haven't bothered getting a single relic weapon started. I guess that's good news for other video games in my backlog, but I really miss the feeling of community I once had here. I used to LOVE talking about the worldbuilding and characters of this game with people for hours on end. But now I can't even talk about the characters and plot, because A) they don't interest me and I feel no desire to talk about them, and B) being open about my dislike of DT on socmed just brings out it's rabid defense squad who LOVE Wuk and Sphene and want them to kiss or some sh*t, idk.

[Darkshade]

Are you me? :| This describes me exactly.