kuronaialtani: ShB into EW was lightning in a bottle for player count and hype and media presentation, between the situation with WoW, covid lockdowns, and ending a ten-year arc. That has more than worn off, and Dawntrail showed it multiple ways. In the past few weeks if not months since Evercold was announced, I've seen more new players than I have in years, both in-game and on social media. People loving it, people hating it, everything in between. If Evercold can stick the landing as a beginning/second step into this new arc as well as QoL between combat and systems and UI and player progression/retention, we might just have that rebirth they claim this is supposed to be.

swedishmastah: I came back after 3 years because of the Nintendo Switch 2 release. There are dozens of us! Dozens!

Famitrack: I really hope Evercold is the adrenaline shot FF needs to feel fresh again. I loved DT but it really did showcase the lack of risk SE takes with the game/combat.

rornock: Dawn trail sounded nice, but was disappointing at launch, sub-par story and slow patch cadence, and decent competition hurt it.

But something about Evercold feels....right feels good.

saffiya420: I fell off of the game during early Endwalker and didn't return for Dawntrail after it seemed it doubled down on decisions I found frustrating from SE. Evercold news definitely brought me back into the game and interested to see what's in store

hazardyoutube1121: i say 1.2 mil - 1.5 mil active in jan

federicocolombo1545: i may sound stupid but im back playing after 6 month cuz my gf without a pc can now play on Switch 2. Time to prog remaining Ultimates while she MSQ

Erin-r8p: I wonder is many new players the Switch 2 port will eventually bring

m.walker2693: Destiny is at its end. Elder Scrolls Online is on life support in terms of real content. Final Fantasy? We got Switch 2 support now and it is the only cross platform console MMORPG. So FFXIV is the only remaining big player available to players beyond PC only as WoW does - of course people numbers are going up.

However, if Square wants this upwards trend to continue, Evercold needs be good.

bighat4742: I really hope SE took some hard lessons to heart from DT. I think the game started growing its issues in StB, but had the story and Covid to cover it after.

They have to change their design philosophy on everything. They have buffered out any friction point of every piece of content in the game in the chase for "player accessibility". It has really lowered the quality of the game in terms of dungeon design (bots really did a number here for those solo queues), progression, overworld activities, and the jobs themselves. People just gpose in town and there's rarely any player reaction beyond a "o/" and "Gg" everywhere else. Steal systems like Conquest and Besiege from XI! Steal world bosses from other MMOs! Do to make players want to actually play the game!

I really hope this is another new start for the game being an MMORPG again instead of a Second Life ERPG with combat as a side activity.

Brandon-uz2eg: Player count usually drops in the middle of an expansion then goes up near the release of the next

Extremely_Casual: So many Free Companies fell over and straight up died during Dawntrail. I've never seen such a drop in player retention than this expansion. Official or not, you can DEFINITELY feel the renewal of energy with Evercold's release. This happens at the tail end of every expansion of course but...boy, the stark difference between the waiting for Dawntrail and the waiting for Evercold has been astronomical.

theoperator3712: The game has recovered slightly, but it's still not even on par with the player count experienced during the doldrums of Endwalker. Evercold has to stick the landing, people are hyped for it, but if it doesn't stick the landing XIV is going to have a Shadowlands moment. If it does stick the landing, then player numbers should continue to climb back up. I don't expect that they will ever be able to rival EW launch numbers ever again though.

incandeza: Yep - I came back after a 4 year break, couldn’t be happier!

Spicynugz223: 2:00 for vid start

Mina-Diamandis: Dawntrail is miserable. I absolutely hate it, the characters, the settings, the story. Miserable. The only good thing to come out of it is Pictomancer, which I really enjoy. and for the love of god please no more Futuristic stuff

thrillhouse4151: The trial getting buffed all the way to Shadowbringers brought me back. Even with the limitations that’s a LOTTA free game and I like to be thrifty with my videogames.

tek512: WoW is currently immolating itself again. We are witnessing a second exodus, but whether this lasts depends entirely on how Evercold’s launch goes.

wompoo7967: Evercold sounds more like a hand held game to me, and returning numbers seem questionably high... until I can buy a skip for Yawntrail, I'll wait. Currently, I'm enjoying WoW classic servers, which I was not expecting. Came back to FF 14 recently however it felt quite dull. With a little luck, a fully fleshed out WOW Classic Plus launches and puts a lot of pressure on SE. Hopefully, it does well, I like having multiple MMO options, hell might even try Aion 2 :P Hoping for a return to form FF14.

dragonfangalexander: "Somewhat controversial" - Half the population dropped the game for the first time and still a 5.2 in metacritic btw.

n3verendR: Who knew that the devs saying they wanted to address some of the biggest issues the game has would be a popularity boost.

erwark: I haven't played in 1.5 years and I still count as active under this criteria. It probably needs to be revised.

Slamannnnnn: As a fellow OCE player, ive noticed limsa become MUCH more populated over the past few weeks.

kailanirhys6107: I want to be excited about evercold. But thr combat changes scare me, and the dual shield tank, using thr shields as claws and guns. Completely, misses the mark for me. Dual shields should be BASHING its way through things, and using "magic" to augment and share with its dual shields. Not a claw/gun.

CorepunkTV: the truth is... we need a new ff mmo like theres no tomorrow. this normalized trend of the biggest mmos on the market milking it for 20 years needs to end. its disrespectful to the fans as well as the developers. you think yoshida and team enjoy working with restrictive, outdated, 15 year old tech and all the limitations it brings? tech (btw) which was deeply flawed even for 15 years ago standards. they had a good run. file this one into the "win" category and please get ready to move on. strike while the iron is hot and you have goodwill from the community. have some foresight and stop blindly chasing easy money at the expense of consumers and dev/creative team. or dont... and wait for the riot mmo to come out, drain your entire playerbase and then you have to scramble at the last minute to come up with a new mmo and you end up with another 1.0 on your hands...

gureguru4694: played it again, dropped it again. selling cosmetics on top of a game purchase and sub is just too much for me. im sorry. glad free trial exist or thats $42 down the drain.

Sev-j3: Shillon

Aug 16 2026

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