FF14 player count has fallen off a cliff and is now at 2019 levels (3/16/2025)

[User202503201232]

Remember the last LuckyBancho census?



Oh how we wished it stopped at the high points of Shadowbringers.

Not only has the game lost all the gains it made from the WoW exodus....

It has now dropped to below 1 million players and to nearly Stormblood territory.



There is only ONE quarter where player count is lower, and that's FIVE AND A HALF YEAR AGO in 2019.

Square Enix. By being cautious and risk averse you are taking the BIGGEST RISK FOR THIS GAME.



Oh something that got brought to my attention:

From Dawntrail onwards, the absolute number of new characters is lower than in the Heavensward and Stormblood periods, when the overall number of characters achieved was lower.

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http://blog.livedoor.jp/umadori0726/.../62221080.html

JP sentiment:

1. "Are all those Archer bots included too?"
2. "83 out of 99 are ‘golden characters,’ so that means there aren’t many new players at all. Is the negative reputation campaign working better than expected?"
3. "Is the 3% completion rate for Eden lower or higher compared to past Ultimate raids? Someone knowledgeable, please explain."
4. "The numbers went down, and that’s hilarious."
5. "If the active player count only dropped by 1%, why did the number of continuing characters from the last survey drop by nearly 10%? What’s going on?"
6. ">>1 Do bots even pay for subscriptions? Without a subscription, they can’t go past level 71, right?"
7. "You guys always say, ‘If you don’t like it, quit!’ Well, congrats, people actually did."
8. "Heading straight for a population decline."
9. "So before COVID, the player base was stable at around 600,000, and then it suddenly doubled? The COVID boom was insane."
10. "I bet they’re desperately inflating these numbers somehow."
11. "If they didn't count bots, the actual number would probably be much lower."
12. "The golden ratio is way too high, showing that almost no new players are coming in."
13. "Even during COVID, the game wasn't that exciting for me. Once restrictions lifted, I quit immediately."
14. "The fact that the golden characters keep increasing while the total active player count stays about the same shows a problem."
15. "The trend is pretty clear: fewer new players, old players sticking around, but some are slowly leaving."
16. "Bot activity inflates the numbers so much that it’s impossible to know how many real players are left."
17. "Are there really only 990,000 active characters left? That number seems so fake."
18. "Looking at past data, it's clear that the population peaked during COVID and is now in decline."
19. "They should really do something about these bots. It’s annoying seeing them everywhere."
20. "I’m surprised it’s still at 990,000. I expected it to drop below 900,000 by now."
21. "FF14 is still in a better position than most other MMOs, but they need to think about player retention."
22. "I'm still having fun, but I can definitely feel the decline."
23. "Most of my friends have already quit. I only log in for the story patches."
24. "The extreme lack of new players means the community is getting stale."
25. "All my free company members have stopped playing, so I just solo now."
26. "If the devs don't introduce new incentives, this game is going to enter a slow decline."
27. "This game used to feel fresh. Now, it just feels like a chore."
28. "I still enjoy raiding, but everything else feels like filler content."
29. "I was excited for this patch, but it doesn’t seem like it changed much."
30. "New content needs to be more engaging if they want people to stick around."
31. "They should stop catering so much to casual players and give hardcore players more challenges."
32. "Another ultimate raid was nice, but I think people are getting burned out."
33. "The game needs something fresh, not just another ultimate or savage tier."
34. "At this rate, I don’t think the next expansion will bring in many new players."
35. "FF14 still has a lot of potential, but they need to innovate."
36. "Even if player numbers are stable, engagement levels seem to be dropping."
37. "I wonder if the devs are aware of how many people are getting tired of the formula."
38. "I still log in daily, but only because I have nothing else to play."
39. "How long can they keep relying on nostalgia and the story to keep people invested?"
40. "I used to think FF14 was unbeatable, but now I’m not so sure."
41. "They need to speed up content delivery. Waiting so long between updates is painful."
42. "A lot of people I know are moving to other games. The competition is getting stronger."
43. "It’s not just about the numbers—player sentiment is also getting worse."
44. "I keep seeing new gacha games pulling away FF14 players."
45. "MMOs in general are in a rough spot, not just FF14."
46. "The devs need to stop ignoring feedback if they want this game to last another 10 years."
47. "A lot of my friends switched to playing single-player RPGs instead of MMOs."
48. "If they don’t shake things up soon, it’s going to be a slow death."
49. "I don’t see myself playing this game much longer unless something major changes."
50. "FF14 is still my favorite MMO, but I’m starting to feel less attached to it."
51. "I wonder how many people are only staying because they feel obligated rather than because they enjoy it."

[weebtext]

We have to go LOWER! LOWEEEEEEEEEER!!

[Hallarem]

We have to go LOWER! LOWEEEEEEEEEER!!

Unironically yes. Seems money is the only thing they will listen to at this phase, judging by the last live letter.

[weebtext]

Unironically yes. Seems money is the only thing they will listen to at this phase, judging by the last live letter.

Oh don't worry, I wasn't being ironic. I genuinely want the player count to sink lower and lower, below SB, below HW, below ARR. I'm so far past dooming I just want to see this game crash and burn.

As much as I would love to see the game get better, I don't have much hope for that happening. Might as well enjoy the shitshow!

[Kaliesto]

We have to go LOWER! LOWEEEEEEEEEER!!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to convince all the international players to unsub for awhile; that is the only thing SE will respond to.

We fought back as hard as we all could, and did not work.

Fine then.

Let's see how they react when they start losing their ill-gotten money.

[AshtonCrowe]

Deserves to go back to 1.0 imho

Yoshi needs to go, CBu3 Needs to go . . Both are Actively poisoning the game, We need monthly updates the dripfeeding ain't it.

[AvoSturmfaust]

And if 7.2 drops the Numbers go up again, like always in the x.0 - x.2 time, i mean i really hope the playerbase stays so low in the hope it changes something but sadly i know exactly it wont change anything at all

[Arrius]

And if 7.2 drops the Numbers go up again, like always in the x.0 - x.2 time, i mean i really hope the playerbase stays so low in the hope it changes something but sadly i know exactly it wont change anything at all

This is the correct answer.
Players will bounce between games and come back to those where they have invested a considerable amount of time when patches are cycled through.

[CNitsah]

That's not a problem, they're just playing other games, they will come back when they feel like it. Everything is going according to the plan.

[NanaWiloh]

That's not a problem, they're just playing other games, they will come back when they feel like it. Everything is going according to the plan.

I was playing another game Xenoblade chronicles X taking a break to do chores and roam the forums a bit. :P