One thing I will say, and I don't get why people always ignore it when discussing the two games, is that FFXIV's monetization is just as predatory as WoW's, if not more predatory.
For one, in WoW you can get any shop item through gold via WoW Tokens, including your subscription. WoW's shop is also pretty quaint compared to the Mog Station, in terms of what's on offer.
Both have cosmetic mounts and pets, but the mounts and pets in WoW are consistently $25 and $10, while in FFXIV they have a bunch of different mounts that cost up to $40. FFXIV also has a variety of cosmetic transmog items, old event items, furniture, emotes, etc. And FFXIV also has pets that can only be obtained by buying the $50 OSTs.
I just don't get why people let FFXIV slide on its microtransactions but double down on attacking WoW's, often in the same breath.
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It's important to note that FFXIV is doing an ongoing Twitch promotion through most of August where FFXIV players can get an exclusive mount for gifting subs to participating channels. That in all likelihood has a lot to do with the recent attention streamers have been giving it, since they get free subs from viewers.
Obviously some will stick with it or genuinely wanted to try it, but the promotion is giving them incentive to play and stream it right now.