FFXIV currently has 730k active characters (NA/EU/JP), up 156k since December

Hyanmen

Figured some people here are interested in how FFXIV is doing numbers wise (because SE isn't saying much):

Source:
http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/43689452.html

http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/41962303.html

The criteria for an "active character": must be above level 21. Any changes to HP/mount/minion/gear counts character as active.

Not too bad for a pre-expansion content drought. The amount of new characters is 256k, a very high number I think.

ib4

"30% are alts"

"40% are gilsellers"

"my free company friends quit so the game is dead"

mayanking

ummm ok

danwest58

Looks good.  We can get these numbers to grow even more in the future.  I think what will attached a few more people is if they take the 2.5 GCD from 2.5 to 2 seconds.  I have some friends that dont like the GCD however could manage better if it was just .5 seconds faster.  I know it sounds small however over the long term combat wouldnt become WOW Spammy.  

Kajidourden

Originally posted by danwest58
Looks good.  We can get these numbers to grow even more in the future.  I think what will attached a few more people is if they take the 2.5 GCD from 2.5 to 2 seconds.  I have some friends that dont like the GCD however could manage better if it was just .5 seconds faster.  I know it sounds small however over the long term combat wouldnt become WOW Spammy.  

 

The skill speed stat decreases this (though only marginally at best).  I can only imagine that as the level cap goes up, and gear naturally has higher stats on it, that this will be an increase as well. 

Personally, I like the combat the way it is.  For me it's a balance between ffxi's very slow, methodical combat and WoW or EQ2s spam-fest.

On topic: It really is insane to see the growth of the game not just going from 1.0 to 2.0 but a very steady increase in playerbase ever since as someone who played 1.0 (and was one of the crazies who liked it).

 

Netspook

Those links doesn't mean much since there are probably very few on this site who reads Japanese.

Wizardry

I don't ever like using numbers to justify anything,there is ONLY one person that matters behind every purchase and that is YOU.

However it is kind of scary,since when have we ever seen a game flop so badly and make such a turn a round....never.Most devs will quickly go in maintenance mode and hope they can fish some gamer's into giving them more money over time or simply shut the game down.

danwest58

Originally posted by Kajidourden

Originally posted by danwest58
Looks good.  We can get these numbers to grow even more in the future.  I think what will attached a few more people is if they take the 2.5 GCD from 2.5 to 2 seconds.  I have some friends that dont like the GCD however could manage better if it was just .5 seconds faster.  I know it sounds small however over the long term combat wouldnt become WOW Spammy.  

 

The skill speed stat decreases this (though only marginally at best).  I can only imagine that as the level cap goes up, and gear naturally has higher stats on it, that this will be an increase as well. 

Personally, I like the combat the way it is.  For me it's a balance between ffxi's very slow, methodical combat and WoW or EQ2s spam-fest.

On topic: It really is insane to see the growth of the game not just going from 1.0 to 2.0 but a very steady increase in playerbase ever since as someone who played 1.0 (and was one of the crazies who liked it).

 

I like the Combat, I just feel that a half a second off of the GCD would be a huge win because it will be slow enough still to matter however fast enough were your waiting too long before hitting the next ability.  Even my friends who played FFXIV said just a half second could make all the difference in the world. 

Hyanmen

Originally posted by danwest58

 

I like the Combat, I just feel that a half a second off of the GCD would be a huge win because it will be slow enough still to matter however fast enough were your waiting too long before hitting the next ability.  Even my friends who played FFXIV said just a half second could make all the difference in the world. 

Even if they do that its not going to happen at level 1, it'll be a lvl60 thing through skill speed (when the GCD doesn't matter much anyway).

Hyanmen

Originally posted by Netspook
Those links doesn't mean much since there are probably very few on this site who reads Japanese.

It's a source for my info so people don't think I am speaking out of my butt.

I can translate whatever you want to know. There's more interesting stuff in there but I just posted the most important data.

Hyanmen

Originally posted by Kajidourden

On topic: It really is insane to see the growth of the game not just going from 1.0 to 2.0 but a very steady increase in playerbase ever since as someone who played 1.0 (and was one of the crazies who liked it).

 

Interestingly it took some time for the growth to begin. I think it was in the Summer last year that the stagnation slowly turned around to a small growth. Of course the Chinese version release boosted the numbers too but this doesn't include them.

cheyane

Great game good job

 

nbtscan

I know several people put off doing the main story for a long time, but I think the 2.5 story completion number is probably the most relevant right now.

Another factor you have to take into consideration is some people have their profiles set to private so you won't know what their various completion achievements are, such as the end of the 2.5 story or Final Coil.  There's a certain percentage of people out there the database scraping can't account for so it's probably marginally higher.

Reizla

Originally posted by Hyanmen

Figured some people here are interested in how FFXIV is doing numbers wise (because SE isn't saying much):

Source:
http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/43689452.html

http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/41962303.html

The criteria for an "active character": must be above level 21. Any changes to HP/mount/minion/gear counts character as active.

Not too bad for a pre-expansion content drought. The amount of new characters is 256k, a very high number I think.

ib4

"30% are alts"

"40% are gilsellers"

"my free company friends quit so the game is dead"

2 months ago, PlayStation blog stated that FFXIV celebrates 4 milion users. That was 2 weeks after the news here that SE had 2M users on their 3 MMOs. Not quite sure which number is accurate, but I doubt that the 4M on PSN blog is ;-)

Purutzil

I enjoy the game but honestly don't see how it really matters. These numbers are far from good at proving numbers. The game is doing good, that is already really needs to be said if you are going to say something. The only valid numbers would be numbers provided by the company themselves. 

Hyanmen

Originally posted by Purutzil
I enjoy the game but honestly don't see how it really matters. These numbers are far from good at proving numbers. The game is doing good, that is already really needs to be said if you are going to say something. The only valid numbers would be numbers provided by the company themselves. 

All the numbers here are provided by the official company website keeping track of the info. A third party only collects it all together to make sense of it. There is no interpretation here.

Foomerang

They will hit a million this year easily. Probably will go down as the greatest comeback in video game history.

Vesavius

All I know is that I had to queue to get onto my server last night.

Bitrip

Why is everyone always so eager to spout stats about FFXIV? It's like they are looking to justify their reason(s) for playing the game. FFXIV is a great MMORPG - we all know this. Just like with every other game some people will like it, and some won't. It simply comes with the territory. We all need different things out of our MMOs.

Vrika

Doesn't that count everyone who's been active after 23.12.2014?

That's close to 4 months, and includes those players who played their characters during return back week at Feb 27th - March 9th.

Foomerang

---

Originally posted by Bitrip
Why is everyone always so eager to spout stats about FFXIV? It's like they are looking to justify their reason(s) for playing the game. FFXIV is a great MMORPG - we all know this. Just like with every other game some people will like it, and some won't. It simply comes with the territory. We all need different things out of our MMOs.

---

Because the story behind this game's success is pretty amazing. It's a fun game to root for and read about. And yes, even more fun to play.

Kothoses

Originally posted by Bitrip
Why is everyone always so eager to spout stats about FFXIV? It's like they are looking to justify their reason(s) for playing the game. FFXIV is a great MMORPG - we all know this. Just like with every other game some people will like it, and some won't. It simply comes with the territory. We all need different things out of our MMOs.

 

Same reason people used to harp on about wows numbers (and some still do) people want to associate them selves with a success.

 

I like FF, I play it regularly and I am glad its doing well, they handled the mess that was the initial launch with a lot of class and deserve success for that.  The numbers are nice because it points to them keeping up the pace and volume of content drops even after the expansion.

Blazeyer

To each his/her own. My 150+ friends list is lucky to have 5-6 people online at a time. All my ls's are empty now. 95% of friends I made in the first 5-6 months or so don't play anymore. (Which is understandable considering the game has had millions of players, of course some will leave)

It's not the game for me, I haven't really played it in 2 months. After release I subbed and played 5-6 weeks every big update. 

If you enjoy the game, then that's for you, and good for you. I'm one of those guys who just wants XI-2.

Vesavius

Originally posted by Blazeyer

To each his/her own. My 150+ friends list is lucky to have 5-6 people online at a time

 

 

Fair enough, I admire your (kinda) neutral sounding statement. It is a passive aggressive exercise in saying nothing but inferring quite a lot. 

What you say would suggest to me though is, yes, people have indeed left the game, because people DO leave games, but your friends list ultimately means very little.

Because new people come to replace them.

Like I say, all I can say is that yesterday I had to queue to get on.

Credit where credit is due.

Loktofeit

Originally posted by Foomerang

They will hit a million this year easily. Probably will go down as the greatest comeback in video game history.

Are there any interviews or a post-mortem with the team since ARR went live? I think the story of how they turned this game around would make for an interesting story, and probably one both players and devs can learn from. 

mgilbrtsn

glad it's doing well.  I plan to come back after I finish my current game.

muppetpilot

ARR wasn't my cup of tea but this is heartening to see.  Not that most of us didn't already know the game was doing well, but still, to see a sub game stay in the realm of 1 million subbed players is wonderful news.

 

I know, I know, p2p is "dead" and subs are "evil" and "f2p ftw!" and all that...hogwash.  A sub fee is completely fine, provided that the game provides enough content to justify said fee.  This may be the lone sub game (alongside Eve, but I know very little about that game) that will actually be able to continue this payment model.  Yoshi-P and his crew seem to be heavily invested in making ARR into something its fans want, and even for someone like me who just didn't really take to the game, the sheer amount of time and love they have poured into it are readily apparent.

 

Good job by all involved.  Here's hoping Heavensward brings the sub numbers up even higher and sends at least some of the p2p-hating trolls into silence.  Or sends them out to get jobs so that they can pay sub fees.

Excelsior!