Based on NA FanFest 2026, Do You Think Friends/Players Will Return to FFXIV?

[Veritas-Ancora]

I know people will say "Shadowbringers will bring people back" but I just don't see this happening.

I dunno how I feel about this FanFest. I wanted one thing from the developers and that was to refresh the game in a way that brings people back.

The new "C" Character screen is differently different, but does that give players an incentive to pay a monthly subscription? Can that bring people back?

I don't want to sound negative, but I just didn't feel like they cared about bringing players back. Maybe a level crunch? Maybe skipping Dawntrail? Maybe... anything?

I'm legitimately interested in what people think. A lot of our friends and comrades are gone. Do you think the new job actions are going to bring the players back?

[Kisshu]

While I'm cautiously optimistic about the new combat design and break away from the 2 min meta, they need something to keep people in the game and not just our log-in, do roulette, log out. Now they're moving towards a week-based system without the daily bonuses, but we'll have to see if this can encourage people to stay.
At minimum, they need something long progression earlier than 8.21 to keep people in the game.

Will this be enough to bring back people, perhaps not, but I think their main concern right now is to stop the bleeding, then they can focus on bringing people back.

[Fawkes]

Shadowbringers in the free trial might bring new players, at least.


The trailer looking cool or the QoL features might get the attention of some lapsed players. I don't think evolved mode will really move the needle much though, so far it mostly comes across sounding like simplification which isn't very enticing. Maybe that will change once there's a job showcase video and updated website with changes for each job that can be understood.

[Grimr]

I know people will say "Shadowbringers will bring people back" but I just don't see this happening.

I dunno how I feel about this FanFest. I wanted one thing from the developers and that was to refresh the game in a way that brings people back.

The new "C" Character screen is differently different, but does that give players an incentive to pay a monthly subscription? Can that bring people back?

I don't want to sound negative, but I just didn't feel like they cared about bringing players back. Maybe a level crunch? Maybe skipping Dawntrail? Maybe... anything?

I'm legitimately interested in what people think. A lot of our friends and comrades are gone. Do you think the new job actions are going to bring the players back?

This is why i am concerned too.They did nothing to address Occult creasant. They did nothing to address the mechs in dw instances. The complaints piled up and they did nothing. Certainly skipping dawntrail would have helped. They should not have wasted their time on these 7.5 additions. We don't need a new OC, nor a varient dungeon, deep dungeon what have you.

[Aidorouge]

I couldn't say for others, as I don't really know anyone else who plays to ask them why they left.

For me personally it feels like its going to be another several months of nothing to do, with Evercold kicking me even further behind, because I can't imagine them making jobs even easier like this unless it means encounters are going to become even harder to compensate, and the addition of parries, dodge-rolls, and the further removal of castbars doesn't bode well for someone of my skill level.

[Wyldkat99]

Honestly, no I think it's going to drive more people away. I know I'm done after this. Most of my FC has quit or plays rarely, I've not played much lately myself because the game has changed drastically since Shb.

I used to enjoy running 8 man raids with my FC, I've not run any recent 8 mans since ShB. I only ran the first 24man raids of EW and DT. I didn't like the stories of them and the game play was horrible. I don't like the Exploration Zone stuff, I barely touched Eurika because it brought back memories of the worst aspects of FFXI for me. I managed to last a little longer in Bozja. The Variant and Criterion Dungeons I tried but disliked because the mobs were not challenging they were HP Sponges.

Deep Dungeons I kinda liked, I did finish PoD and HoH. I lost interest with Eureka Orthos and Never even tried PT. I used to like running dungeons and Roulettes. But the Dungeons became a chore past ShB. Too many overly punishing mechanics and spam to be able to enjoy the runs.

Crafting was fun for a while, The Ishguardian Restoration would have been fun if not for the FOMO and Bots killing the friendly competition. Cosmic Exploration started out ok, but The activities kinda ramped up into no-lifer territory fast and there was really no point to adding the extra planets other than the "Oh that's kinda cool" factor that lasts about the first three times you are there.

Society quests were great. They were a nice pop in, do a few tasks and enjoy a cozy story thing, they were also great for Leveling jobs and just getting out and enjoying the World.

Some people won't agree, but the Community of FFXIV has changed drastically since ShB. There's a lot more Weirdos and Pervs than there used to be, or they are at least much bolder in their actions.

I'm probably gonna cancel my sub for the first time since I started playing FFXIV back in the ARR BETA and let my House go. It just looks like people like me aren't wanted by SE anymore as Customers.

[Gwenkatsu]

I basically gave up on DT. Story, characters, pacing, graphic sets that look like some cheap downloads, the list is endless. I quit last year because of DT, and returned later despite DT. I haven't touched any DT content since then, only the older parts of the game. Basically, what I read out of DT, was something like:

We gave up. Before moving on, the seniors handed their vaunted formula to the interns, who are now running the show. Expect a list of same-ish xpacs, until the last player realizes what has become of the game, and we can finally shut down the servers for good.

But the few things I heard about 8.0 indeed got me hyped - which I hadn't thought possible at this point. That they're finally changing their vaunted formula, that they're taking risks now - this tells me a totally different story:

We realize our DT approach did not work. Seniors reported back to work, trying to solve the problems by shaking things up. And the interns are now doing intern stuff, as it should be.

No idea if any of their planned changes will work. But that they are planning changes tells me, they have not given up on the game.

This is my personal opinion of course, but also what I will tell to others. What they will make of it, is totally up to them.

[CCheshire]

I've actually never considered my friends coming back to FFXIV or any old games, like how no one was interested in the FT before they added Shb so I don't think they will start now. So I have no control over what my friends will or won't do since most of them have quit games or don't own a PC or console like I played FFIXV because I liked playing for my own sake even if no one else cared.

Then I've played a variety of MMO and it's one of the long-term games that I find alot of adults end up dropping since their lives change because of more IRL responsibilities or obligations, so FFXIV is less important to them in 2026 too. Yeah, I know the game itself is always changing and improving over time, but it can't do anything if the said person is now married with kids or decides to change careers now so they have way less time to play.

Also, I know a majority of ppl I met on ffxiv Discord servers are on hiatus, or some have quit the game completely but still want to see the news or chat with friends still there. Then I just do what I can, like whatever small or large tasks I have in-game as personal goals, and be open to making new friends as the time passes, either in NN or just chatting with others in PF.

[Slayer25c]

Lmao u all need to go outside stop with this doom and gloom wait for the other two fan fest and just stop with the whining

[Jeeqbit]

I think a lot of people will return, for the following reasons:

• The trailer is exciting, and cleverly makes Dawntrail a useful pillar of it whilst also making it kind of irrelevant (the key and merging the 9th with the Source was the pillar, but we're also basically forgetting the events of Dawntrail at the same time and making ShB/EW events relevant again by using the Azem crystal and tackling the issue of the sundering).
• A lot of people quit over time due to lack of job identity, job uniqueness, the 2 minute meta, and this has been happening since Stormblood but especially since Shadowbringers. It wasn't reflected in the statistics, because the game growth outpaced it. But people who valued rotation depth were quitting ever since then, and that's a fact, and these changes will likely win SOME of them back.
• The game has over time, and especially recently, lost players due to "making it all high-end raid content". So the promise of a third difficulty between Normal and Savage raids will help win people back who felt there was no content for them.
• A lot of people have been quitting due to data centers dying as a result of travel to Aether/Light/Mana for raiding. Whether cross-DC PF/DF will bring people back I don't know, but it will at least stop people quitting due to it, which I believe has been happening at a mass scale - the people quitting haven't talked much but they've subtly felt their data center die and kinda just stopped playing.
• My entire time on these forums, I've seen posts requesting open world content to be useful. It's clearly not an open world game, but SE has finally agreed to focus on this - hunts, FATEs, treasure and such will be changed (less FATEs, but the ones that exist will be bigger and better FATE battles). The weekly reward system will reward doing open world content as opposed to just spamming Expert roulette or hunt trains. Given this has been widely requested for years it may draw people back to the game.

That said, there will be:

• People who laugh off the changes and make negative videos about the changes because farming hate content about FFXIV is what their YouTube channel is about.
• There will be people who don't think the changes are enough for them.
• There will be people who will actually quit due to the changes, believing Evolved to be simplifying the game more (despite this not being the intention of the developers).
• There will be people who, while somewhat impressed with the changes, have already moved on and just aren't gonna actually come back from whatever game or life stage they've moved on to.