Final Fantasy XIV grows to 27 million players

The hit MMO Final Fantasy XIV has reached 27 million registered users, up from 24 million around this time last year. During a recent livestream, director Naoki Yoshida broke the news via a gold disco ball, which he had Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda unfurl to reveal the grand number. 

It’s an impressive growth, helped by the fact that Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO that can be played on PlayStation devices, in addition to PC. And being free-to-play up until level 60 and the game’s second expansion, Heavensward, doesn’t hurt either.

Final Fantasy XIV has grown in popularity (and profit) since its relaunch, but hit a particular surge ahead of the release of its Endwalker expansion in late 2021. New players were coming at such a high volume that Square had to stop selling the game on two separate occasions, one of which lasted into early 2022, in order to add more server space. 

Yoshida added that the game’s not far off from reaching 28 million players, and that means the 30 million milestone is also in sight. Square Enix developers seem confident it can reach that number by next year, which will mark the 10-year anniversary of the MMO’s first campaign, A Realm Reborn.  

That’s a long time for an MMO to be around, let alone one that went through a very public reboot. Last year, Yoshida explained that the game’s longevity is owed to the amount of time developers have to innovate and explore new ideas.