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

[dope_danny]

Man i love FFXIV, more than WoW nowadays which is something i never thought id say like 3 years ago, but you must be mad to think any game that costs money will be the biggest when theres f2p options out there. Doesnt make them better games but ill bet dollars to donuts some of the korean/chinese mmo f2p giants take the title of biggest mmo userbases.

[Shudder]

Oh look, another person who can't grasp the difference between registered accounts and subscribers. Life if hard and full of peril. I wish you luck.

[Irian]

That's not active subscriptions. I swear to god, someday people will stop making this mistake.

I think a census during the post-patch lull of FFXIV put the playerbase at around 1.2mil total players. So, during active time (like now) following a patch I'd probably say about 1.8-2mil. It's respectable, but it's definitely not WoW.

[Sylvestra]

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.

Yeah it does improve as you get to higher levels (I reached level 60). Classes are more interesting than WoD class design aswell. But the combat still isn't as fast paced or as smooth/fluid as WoW IMO.

[unholytestament]

All this salt and I'm just over here happily playing both WoW and FFXIV.

[Echo of Soul]

Yeah it does improve as you get to higher levels (I reached level 60). Classes are more interesting than WoD class design aswell. But the combat still isn't as fast paced or as smooth/fluid as WoW IMO.

I agree. It's more tactical, you don't spam the buttons in the same way you would in WoW. The OGCD change that came with 3.3 was a godsend though. OGCD abilities activating seemingly instant made for a lot more fluent gameplay experience.

[Usagi Senshi]

I agree with the guy above me, WoW seems faster because you're mashing meaningless filler more often. Really doesn't make it that great TBH. I wish Enhance got heavily pruned 3 years ago but Legion seems to have fixed that a bit without having to worry about flameshock/firenova spam and lightning bolt anymore.

Yeah it does improve as you get to higher levels (I reached level 60). Classes are more interesting than WoD class design aswell. But the combat still isn't as fast paced or as smooth/fluid as WoW IMO.

Eh, it may not be as fast due to deliberate slower GCD but it is definitely just as fluid and smooth along with general movement/everything else as good as WoW does. I played a enhance shaman (worst GCD locked offender for 7+ years in a row, I also topped a few top 10 dps spots a few times in Wrath, and MoP), rogue, druid, monk, paladin, and warrior so I think I know what I'm talking about.

Both are still slow as shit compared to TERA however....

[Deleted]

Because bibi set this site up for the mmo champion so now it should just be ff14 news since I guess that is the current champion.

Then that isn't ff14 either as MMO is broader term than MMORPG. There are games with more people

[Stormspark]

That's not active subscriptions. I swear to god, someday people will stop making this mistake.

I think a census during the post-patch lull of FFXIV put the playerbase at around 1.2mil total players. So, during active time (like now) following a patch I'd probably say about 1.8-2mil. It's respectable, but it's definitely not WoW.

I think it's just a hair over 2 million myself. The question is whether WOW has dropped below that. It may have. The last estimate I saw was that WOW had dropped below 3 million, and that was a couple months ago.

Legion will (probably) cause WOW to rise again, so even if FFXIV is ahead it probably won't be for much longer. Unless Legion is another bait and switch turd like WOD was.

[Jtbrig7390]

Man i love FFXIV, more than WoW nowadays which is something i never thought id say like 3 years ago, but you must be mad to think any game that costs money will be the biggest when theres f2p options out there. Doesnt make them better games but ill bet dollars to donuts some of the korean/chinese mmo f2p giants take the title of biggest mmo userbases.

Age of Wushu took that title ages ago. It was reported it had over 20 million active players back in early MOP days.

[Dhrizzle]

I think it's just a hair over 2 million myself. The question is whether WOW has dropped below that. It may have. The last estimate I saw was that WOW had dropped below 3 million, and that was a couple months ago.

Legion will (probably) cause WOW to rise again, so even if FFXIV is ahead it probably won't be for much longer. Unless Legion is another bait and switch turd like WOD was.

If it follows the same trend as the last 6 years WoW will probably be around 4.4million at the moment, depending on whether it's started to pick up as people get ready for Legion.

[Faroth]

Personally, I'm fine with FFXIV having less subscribers than WoW. So long as there's enough to support the game's continued development, a reasonable and committed playerbase is better than a massive one. I think WoW's "downfall" for a lot of players was getting too popular and then trying to cater to every player type and playstyle, which diluted their strengths by spreading themselves too thin.

FFXIV can keep doing what it's doing and people who like story driven MMOs (I've seen a lot of people complain there's too much to read/watch) with regular, though not always new/unique, content can play it. The game's not for every taste and play style though. Heck, the new LFR-equivalent is going to raise sea levels with the amount of tears it's causing. Of course, this is after complaints of how super faceroll the previous one was.

[Pua]

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.

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

Nobody (repeat, nobody) is arguing otherwise.

The fact that people play for free is exactly that; a fact. You're arguing with me over something I've said that is 100% correct. I've absolutely no idea, whatsoever, why anybody would do that.

[Dhrizzle]

Nobody (repeat, nobody) is arguing otherwise.

The fact that people play for free is exactly that; a fact. You're arguing with me over something I've said that is 100% correct. I've absolutely no idea, whatsoever, why anybody would do that.

Just not sure how it's "artificially inflating" the figures. Instead of paying with their own money some players are doing chores so that someone else will pay for their subscription, but Blizz are still receiving the same (plus a bit more) money.

[unholytestament]

Nobody (repeat, nobody) is arguing otherwise.

The fact that people play for free is exactly that; a fact. You're arguing with me over something I've said that is 100% correct. I've absolutely no idea, whatsoever, why anybody would do that.

That's not the point they're arguing. What you have stated here is technically a fact, but that technicality makes the actual meaning behind that fact different than the way that statement is typically used.

There are people technically playing WoW for free, as in not spending real money to pay their subscriptions. This is because they are acquiring tokens in game that were put there by other people who paid real money for them. The money is still being spent, Blizzard is still getting it, this has no direct effect on subscription numbers (other than the number of people who will continue to play because they have amassed obscene amounts of gold, but that's not a point anyone is arguing).

This is a far cry from people actually playing for free.

[Sylvestra]

Eh, it may not be as fast due to deliberate slower GCD but it is definitely just as fluid and smooth along with general movement/everything else as good as WoW does.

I didn't play 3.3, but from my experience before that, I don't agree with you. Combat didn't feel as smooth as WoW.

[Pua]

That's not the point they're arguing. What you have stated here is technically a fact, but that technicality makes the actual meaning behind that fact different than the way that statement is typically used.

None of that makes the slightest difference to the end user. Because less people are willing to pay for the game out of their own pocket, the WoW token adjusts subscription numbers up the way by monetizing existing players more than once.

It's really very simple; if not for the WoW token, there would be less subscribers. This is why the WoW token "artificially inflates" the number of players.

The only way that wouldn't be true is if people playing via the token would still pay for it out of their own pocket. And because we know that's not the case (people make that claim on these very forums), the only conclusion is the one I've given you.

I'm not sure what's confusing people about this.

[Raelbo]

None of that makes the slightest difference to the end user. Because less people are willing to pay for the game out of their own pocket, the WoW token adjusts subscription numbers up the way by monetizing existing players more than once.

It's really very simple; if not for the WoW token, there would be less subscribers. This is why the WoW token "artificially inflates" the number of players.

The only way that wouldn't be true is if people playing via the token would still pay for it out of their own pocket. And because we know that's not the case (people make that claim on these very forums), the only conclusion is the one I've given you.

I pay for my subscriptions with tokens. If tokens weren't available I would happily still pay real money. I have 2 guildies who I know are in the same boat. The only other person I know who was paying with tokens stopped playing in spite of having enough gold to buy tokens. (His reason for stopping was fatherhood making it difficult for him to put enough time to WoW to play the way he wants to).

In the end you can only speculate about how tokens have affected the number of subscribers. Certainly there are people for whom the subscription price is a barrier to playing, and for people in that category with gold, it will mean the difference between subscribing and not. But at the same time there are definitely a lot of token buyers who would be playing regardless.

I would guestimate that maybe 3-5% of the current subscriber base are only playing because of tokens. It's not nothing, but it also isn't a significant portion either.

[Aoewy]

Just not sure how it's "artificially inflating" the figures. Instead of paying with their own money some players are doing chores so that someone else will pay for their subscription, but Blizz are still receiving the same (plus a bit more) money.

In a case like me, who would pay with money even if there wasnt any Token, it doesnt artificially inflate, because I'd let my sub run anyway. But I see the point he's saying, there are people who would not pay money to sub if there wasnt token, these are the people he talks about. So if you have 10 people, 6 are paid sub, 4 are token sub paid by 1 of the sub, now you remove the tokens, the 6 subs will still be there including the guy who paid the 4 tokens, 2 of the tokens decide to still play the game and pay, the 2 others leave. You have 8 people left.

[ro9ue]

Personally, I'm fine with FFXIV having less subscribers than WoW. So long as there's enough to support the game's continued development, a reasonable and committed playerbase is better than a massive one. I think WoW's "downfall" for a lot of players was getting too popular and then trying to cater to every player type and playstyle, which diluted their strengths by spreading themselves too thin.

FFXIV can keep doing what it's doing and people who like story driven MMOs (I've seen a lot of people complain there's too much to read/watch) with regular, though not always new/unique, content can play it. The game's not for every taste and play style though. Heck, the new LFR-equivalent is going to raise sea levels with the amount of tears it's causing. Of course, this is after complaints of how super faceroll the previous one was.

That's a really good point. I wonder if an MMO can be "too big". Like maybe the reason you see so much less negativity (there will always be some) for smaller games is because the developers can really focus on that niche audience.

What's interesting is when I played Rift, EQ1, EQ2, etc... all much smaller communities, it seemed like I had way more in common with most of the players I ran into because those games were more focused and tighter-knit.



Maybe even WoW will become a better game now that the community is much smaller and the devs can focus on the core players?