Dawntrail’s launch gave Final Fantasy XIV its biggest player count in 11 years
Square Enix released Final Fantasy XIV’s new Dawntrail expansion this week, and the new adventure is doing big numbers. In a new blog, director/producer Naoki Yoshida claimed the MMO hit a new record of concurrent players.
Hard numbers weren’t posted, but Yoshida noted the concurrents were its biggest since the soft reboot A Realm Reborn launched back in 2013. He considered it even more impressive given the game’s launch issues.
“It has been a joy to watch you all play, each in your own unique way,” he said. “But weâve become aware of several issues that may have proven a hinderance to your overall experience. For that, I sincerely apologize.”
Charting Final Fantasy XIV’s numbers is a little tricky, given its multiplatform status. On SteamDB, it had a recent 24-hour peak of 71,208 players, which puts it not that far behind the peak of 95,150 players back when Endwalker launched in 2021.
So big was Endwalker that Square Enix had to stop selling the game ahead of launch because it’d gotten too popular. Even with that expansion’s issues, it went on to become a big revenue driver for Square Enix at the time.
Dawntrail’s importance was boosted with Final Fantasy XIV’s arrival on Xbox months prior (albeit troubled), and kicking off a new story arc for the larger game. However, it’s unclear on what system the bulk of players drove this new concurrent peak.
Either way, Final Fantasy XIV appears to show no signs of fading away anytime soon.
About the Author(s)
Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don’t ask him about how much gum he’s had, because the answer will be more than he’s willing to admit.
