Final Fantasy XIV's initial release was considered a failure by many, and its future didn't shine very brightly. The game saw a resurrection with A Realm Reborn, and the hard work put in by the development team has paid off in the form of a significant milestone over a decade later.
On stage during Tokyo's FFXIV Fan Festival, director and producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida was joined by Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu to announce that Final Fantasy XIV had now reached 30 million players. Many MMOs have come and gone since Final Fantasy XIV's inception, and none have become a titan in the genre like FFXIV has.
The game's player base has grown with each subsequent expansion, particularly seeing a significant increase before Endwalker's release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The release of Endwalker was plagued with long login queue times due to the massive amount of players attempting to log in, which had to be addressed multiple times by Yoshi-P himself. Square Enix halted digital sales of FFXIV in an attempt to slow down incoming players, though the congestion issues persisted for months. There are only so many MMOs that can say they were suffering from success.
It's expected that the number will continue to rise from 30 million, thanks to a new expansion just around the corner and the game launching on Xbox consoles in Spring 2024. Final Fantasy XIV will be more accessible than ever, and the hype surrounding a new expansion will surely attract those who have yet to set foot in Eorzea. With the introduction of a new Data Center using the cloud and upgrades to previous server hardware, here's hoping Dawntrail doesn't experience hours-long login queues.
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