Is Final Fantasy XIV now the biggest MMORPG on the market?

[Video Games]

Ah so you're saying you believe WoW is probably under 900k subscribers by now?

Why is that hard to believe if the numbers show that they can lose 1m+ subs in a single quarter

[Pua]

Are you trying to say you think FF14 has gained 4 million more active subs in the past year without a new expansion coming out yet? I mean, the game's pretty solid but this is optimistic

If anything, it probably has less subs now than it did when this quote was posted. MMO genre in general is not doing great right now.

I think steady growth, which is what Final Fantasy XIV has always delivered, would lead to another 200,000 to 400,000 players - putting them at, maybe, 1.5 million.

Going from the last accounts posted by Blizzard, and being creative with the sums, World of Warcraft probably lost in the region of another 600,000 players; there's still likely a big difference.

[Usagi Senshi]

Ah so you're saying you believe WoW is probably under 900k subscribers by now?

I'd go as far as saying that total Western (EU and US) subs is barely above 2.5 million anymore if that, especially since they can't cheese with the Chinese numbers anymore.

[Leih]

I'd go as far as saying that total Western (EU and US) subs is barely above 2.5 million anymore if that, especially since they can't cheese with the Chinese numbers anymore.

I'd say that's probably quite realistic. Less than 900k seems a bit overly critical, but ~2.5M seems likely if you count western only.

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I think steady growth, which is what Final Fantasy XIV has always delivered, would lead to another 200,000 to 400,000 players - putting them at, maybe, 1.5 million.

Going from the last accounts posted by Blizzard, and being creative with the sums, World of Warcraft probably lost in the region of another 600,000 players; there's still likely a big difference.

From my anecdotal experience with community in FF14 I think it seems a bit unlikely that they've substantially grown in the past year. Stayed about the same maybe, but not a big growth. Blizzard have certainly lost more subs but I doubt they've lost enough to take them under 1 million yet.

But it's all guesswork. We simply don't know and probably shouldn't care that much unless you're a shareholder yourself.

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Why is that hard to believe if the numbers show that they can lose 1m+ subs in a single quarter

It's easy to lose massive subs coming down from the large influx of subscribers that WoD launch brought. I think the core playerbase of 2-3M are probably harder to shake all in one go.

But it's just speculation on all parts.

[Usagi Senshi]

I think steady growth, which is what Final Fantasy XIV has always delivered, would lead to another 200,000 to 400,000 players - putting them at, maybe, 1.5 million.

Going from the last accounts posted by Blizzard, and being creative with the sums, World of Warcraft probably lost in the region of another 600,000 players; there's still likely a big difference.

Its possible, especially if they keep releasing the great patches and don't wait for nearly 6 months like the first patch for this current expansion. :P New expansion probably being announced this year at Fanfest will stir up more interest as well.

I'm on a whats considered a low to mid-tier server (Faerie) and its always jam-packed full of people and always a few people out and about in each zone.

I also know about 7 people who quit WoW permanently to play FFXIV.

[Fojos]

How do tokens inflate subscription numbers? Someone is still paying real (more) money for it.

[Pua]

From my anecdotal experience with community in FF14 I think it seems a bit unlikely that they've substantially grown in the past year. Stayed about the same maybe, but not a big growth. Blizzard have certainly lost more subs but I doubt they've lost enough to take them under 1 million yet.

I'm being a bit generous with Final Fantasy XIV, but there's nowhere near a drop of four million players for World of Warcraft. If you look at the financial reports and compare them, it's around another half-million (slightly more) dropped from the last count.

It's probably sat at around 4,500,000 subscribers, with Final Fantasy XIV sat at around 1,100,000.

I asked the question because of a graphic that says "players", not "accounts".

How do tokens inflate subscription numbers? Someone is still paying real (more) money for it.

I already answered this question.

[Leih]

I asked the question because of a graphic that says "players", not "accounts".

Yeah we actually had a huge amount of topics asking the same question about a year ago when they first started quoting this number. It's pretty misleading, but it is indeed the number of registered accounts (i.e. people who have bought the game and signed up for at least their first 30 days) rather than a quote of active subscribers.

I guess their marketing spin is doing its job, it's obviously written ambiguously for a reason

[Fojos]

I'm being a bit generous with Final Fantasy XIV, but there's nowhere near a drop of four million players for World of Warcraft. If you look at the financial reports and compare them, it's around another half-million (slightly more) dropped from the last count.

It's probably sat at around 4,500,000 subscribers, with Final Fantasy XIV sat at around 1,100,000.

I asked the question because of a graphic that says "players", not "accounts".



I already answered this question.

But they're not playing for free, they're just playing on the money of someone else.

[Dhrizzle]

Why is that hard to believe if the numbers show that they can lose 1m+ subs in a single quarter

Because those massive losses came after massive gains, and if you ignore the boost and drop you get with an expansion WoW as been declining at a steady ~100k a month for the last 6 years.

[Fencers]

A lot of people believed that the subscription-based MMORPG was finished.

Nothing is evertruly finished in video games industry. But the sub model is definitely the least successful method. There are just fewer sub based MMOs that can turn a profit (most are exceptions/niche) and far more that can turn a profit by being F2P.

Any model can work given the right circumstances, however.

[Video Games]

Because those massive losses came after massive gains, and if you ignore the boost and drop you get with an expansion WoW as been declining at a steady ~100k a month for the last 6 years.

Nice mental gymnastics. They lost half of their player base in 6 months. 6 months later, nothing exactly stopped them from losing more since no content came out

[Pua]

I guess their marketing spin is doing its job, it's obviously written ambiguously for a reason

Thank goodness for MMO-C and its community, then.

But they're not playing for free, they're just playing on the money of someone else.

Right. So people playing via a token, are playing for free. They're not paying anything - the game is 100% free, for them.

Nothing is evertruly finished in video games industry. But the sub model is definitely the least successful method. There are just fewer sub based MMOs that can turn a profit (most are exceptions/niche) and far more that can turn a profit by being F2P.

Any model can work given the right circumstances, however.

That's understood. The freemium model makes millions per day, which was a point I made on the Facebook integration topic. Few will pay a fiver for Candy Crush, but will happily plow £20 into it for gold bars.

[Cæli]

I see that some people think Blizzard can possibly shut the server, which is a very naive business assumption. They will expand and keep the store running forever. There will always be enough players for it to be profitable. The game creates a true addiction, and addicts will never be free during their lifetime.

As for number of players, if you still care, I'm not sure it's what's important anymore. I think the money generated is what's important no matter the players.

[Masoner]

Anyone who is playing both FFXIV and wow atm (like my self) if they are honest will tell you that FFXIV is currently the best MMORPG experience compared to not just Wow but also all the other MMORPGs on the market.


Community (check)
Dungeons, Raids (check)
Role Playing (check)
Professions (check)
Mount/minion collection (check)
Updates/patches (check and check)
PVP (check)

..etc


In My Opinion, with out FFXIV on the market Blizzard would care little to NOTHING about World of Warcraft and it's cause of the competition that they are at least trying to do something with Legion.

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In 2014 Blizzard made nearly 1 billion dollars from paid services just from wow.

The loss in subscribers may look bad on paper but they are still taken in money hand over fist.

[Dhrizzle]

Nice mental gymnastics. They lost half of their player base in 6 months. 6 months later, nothing exactly stopped them from losing more since no content came out

Hardly gymnastics. A new expansion caused a massive jump in subs, 6 months later those players had gone again and the steady decline continued. You're conveniently ignoring the 6 months after the drop when subs losses were only 200k.

[Sylvestra]

As far as MMORPG experience goes, FFX14 does far better than current WoW. I just couldn't stand how slow combat is, just doesnt feel as smooth as WoW.

[Dhrizzle]

Right. So people playing via a token, are playing for free. They're not paying anything - the game is 100% free, for them.

Do you also include children who's parents pay for them as playing for free? Essentially people who pay with tokens are getting someone else to pay for the subscription in exchange for gold-farming services, with Blizzard taking an extra cut.

[Super Kami Dende]

Nice mental gymnastics. They lost half of their player base in 6 months. 6 months later, nothing exactly stopped them from losing more since no content came out

They didn't lose half their playerbase, they lost the same few million that come back and play the new storyline and then leave again. Their "constant" has been on a steady and fairly slow decline over the last 6 years.

so to quote yourself trying to make it seem like there was some "major" exodus.

Nice mental gymnastics.

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Right. So people playing via a token, are playing for free. They're not paying anything - the game is 100% free, for them.

Someone else is paying their subscription, so it still goes towards the count.

[Echo of Soul]

As far as MMORPG experience goes, FFX14 does far better than current WoW. I just couldn't stand how slow combat is, just doesnt feel as smooth as WoW.

A lot of people are saying this and yes, in the beginning it is slow when all you do is press a different button every 2.5 seconds, but most MMORPGs start off simple and/or slow. Also consider this:
* Most casters in WoW have a 2.0-2.5 second base cast time so if you are playing one of these the difference is very small.
* At higher levels 2 out of the 3 melee jobs have their GCD cut down to 2 seconds.
* At higher levels you need to weave in abilities that are off the global cooldown between abilties. You can fit in two of these which makes combat a lot hectic for some classes when you need to press three abilities in 2.5 seconds instead of one.
* GCD can be shortened by stats on gear, however this is true for WoW too so it's not really as valid as the other points I'm making.

If you've made it all the way up to lvl50 or even lvl60 you'll know that combat changes a lot along the way.