Unofficial survey on Final Fantasy XIV reveals a perceived drop in Dawntrail's player base, prior to update 7.25
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While Final Fantasy XIV's Occult Crescent patch has brought back that classic MMO vibe, it also highlighted a year's worth of lethargy among players. My gaming mate, Mollie Taylor from our team, and I, couldn't help but feel emotional as we jumped into our first critical encounter, surrounded by strangers ready for a boss battle – the thought hit us, "We're playing an MMO again."
But that rekindled joy had us recognizing the emptiness that had plagued our friend lists and linkshells for months. A void, albeit unofficially supported by numbers from Automaton, an online gaming analytics platform.
LuckyBancho, the internets' unofficial census taker, has been monitoring the FF14 playerbase for years. Now, with queries pulled from the Lodestone – a character repository provided by Square Enix – they determine whether a character is active or not by evaluating certain factors against their prior survey results. Factors like changes in HP or XP, new minions or mounts, you get the idea.
Based on these metrics, their estimate of active accounts stands at about 950,000 – a number that, though tricky to nail down, is significantly below the previous count of 990,000, attained using the exact same methodology. LuckyBancho also tracks achievements, offering a graph for the data in quarterly segments. While we're still waiting for the latest figures (the fourth quarter ends in June), there's a clear downward trend, with no sign of a turnaround since the last segment.
A game with almost one million active players isn't exactly dead meat, but there are some plausible explanations for why things have taken a turn.
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One major issue dogging FF14 is a misstep in content scheduling. Not just the gaps between patches, but a prioritization of content itself. Dawntrail released with no repeatable midcore content – stuff that engages the brain, but doesn't require top-notch teamwork or killer reflexes. World of Warcraft would call this midcore content world quests, reputation grinds, delves, and (debatably) the early keystones of Mythic+.
Instead, Creative Studio 3 made the backward decision of scheduling all this stuff nearly a year after the expansion's release, favoring Savage Raids, Extreme Trials, and Ultimates over, you know, stuff the majority of players could actually participate in. Anything that wasn't that level of challenge was either shockingly straightforward (FATEs, treasure dungeons, society quests, and new story dungeons) or locked behind weekly limits (Alliance Raids and Normal Raids).
Let's not forget the elephant in the room: Square Enix doesn't seem to have much of a clue about creating effective world content. The zones for Dawntrail are downright stunning, but I've barely spent any time there. I grinded out all my FATEs like a month after release, then never stepped foot outside the main city unless it's for treasure maps, gathering nodes, or society quests. It's either high-level dungeons or raids or nothing at all.
Then there's the game's story. FF14 has historically relied on player investment in its narrative, but the latest patches have floundered. Although they've made significant improvements, the expansion as a whole fell short, fracturing that goodwill with the player base. Only time will tell if Square Enix can rescue the good ship FF14 and return it to the shining days of Shadowbringers.
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Harvey RandallStarted gaming with a Warcraft subscription at 12 and has been plagued with FF14 boredom ever since. Go figure. He's penned articles for renowned media sites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine, and, of course, PC Gamer. Harvey has a fondness for RPGs, soulslike games, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and bizarre indie titles. He's also a diehard TTRPG fan in his downtime. He's still yet to decide on a favorite gaming system.
- Despite the excitement of Final Fantasy XIV's Occult Crescent patch, the emptiness in friend lists and linkshells serves as a reminder of the lethargy among players, with LuckyBancho's recent estimate of active accounts standing at around 950,000 – a significant drop from the previous count of 990,000.
- One plausible reason behind this decline could be the content scheduling issue in FF14, particularly the focus on high-level content like Savage Raids, Extreme Trials, and Ultimates, leaving out midcore content that engages the brain but doesn't require top-notch teamwork or killer reflexes.
- Creative Studio 3 prioritized these challenging contents, scheduling them nearly a year after the expansion's release, while the less-challenging content was either straightforward or locked behind weekly limits.
- The lack of effective world content and a slightly flawed expansion storyline have also contributed to this decline, with the stubbornness of the game's narrative falling short of achieving the same goodwill as previous patches.
