Final Fantasy XIV famously did not have the kind of launch that Square Enix wanted. It seemed like the MMO was set to bomb, but you wouldn’t know it by the look of things today.
Now, in 2024, more than a decade after it first launched and re-launched as A Realm Reborn, producer and director of the MMO at Square Enix Naoki Yoshida announced that the game hit “a record number of concurrent users,” the likes of which it hasn’t seen since it re-launched as A Realm Reborn in 2013.
That peak comes from its latest expansion, Dawntrail, which is being praised by fans and critics alike. Yoshida confirmed the record in a message to players on the Final Fantasy XIV website, where he also expressed his delight at the response Dawntrail has received, even with the multiple issues players have faced at launch, for which he also apologizes.
“First, I would like to thank you all for your patience and cooperation in dealing with server congestion during the early access for Dawntrail. With your support, we were able to reach a record number of concurrent users we’ve not seen since the release of A Realm Reborn in 2013.
It has been a joy to watch you all play, each in your own unique way, but we’ve become aware of several issues that may have proven a hinderance to your overall experience.
For that, I sincerely apologize. We’ve already announced on the Lodestone that a number of these issues are presently under investigation, but rest assured we will be doing everything in our power to address them as quickly as possible. You can expect a follow-up announcement as soon as fixes are ready for implementation.”
Hopefully the issues players are facing will be resolved quickly, but the server issues it’s had only further emphasizes how big of an expansion Dawntrail has been for FFXIV.
Source – [Square Enix]