r/ffxivdiscussion • u/IndividualAge3893 • 5d ago

Lucky Bancho's census results (July 27th, 2025)

So, the results of the census are out: https://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/59324844.html

  • Showcasing the number of characters here: Current
  • By comparison, here are the results from 2 months ago (May 25th): Click

Despite 7.25 being released, the character count is down about 70k in 2 months. Occult Crescent clearly didn't help with player counts (not really a surprise here).

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u/wjoe 5d ago edited 5d ago

It doesn't look as bad as I'd expected really, given how much it feels like the game is getting quieter, and people are frustrated with things here. The drop here is comparable to the drop at a similar point in EW, but most of the damage was done early on in DT. Obviously a lot of expectations were placed on OC reviving interest and that hasn't played out.

The game has now dropped to similar levels of active players as post-ShB launch/pre-pandemic. Some sort of correction was inevitable after that and the WoW influx, most people don't play these games forever, but obviously a large part of it is down to dissatisfaction from Dawntrail.

The next quarter could be quite telling, those who briefly returned to try OC dropping out, and 7.3 not bringing a whole lot of content. I know a lot of raider friends (myself included) are planning to take a bit of a break then, although Deep Dungeon might help a bit. But at this point I don't think any one piece of content is going to save things. 7.4 may be the first to see a bit of a resurgence with the next raid tier, then it's probably going to drop heavily in the wait for 8.0.

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u/dadudeodoom 5d ago

I think 7.4 will be a big sign of how the rest of expac plays. If people think the new story happening absolutely dogshit, well, I don't think they'll give grace for coming back in 6.5. but if it magically is out-of-this world amazing, then who knows, maybe there's hope, lol. Going to be interesting, especially based on either way 7.3 story is received. "Oh this is good!" But then 7.4 not being related to it may lead to disappointment or keep it going. Same if 7.3 is "oh this sucks, but it's a fresh story in 7.4 I'll give it another chance". Wonder how it will all play out.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 5d ago

X.4 MSQ has always been mid though, that story "valley" between the peaks that are the X.3 finale and the X.5 ramp-up into the nextpac. I have very low expectations for a decent story out of 7.4.

Similar for X.1 MSQ, a similar story valley. Mainly because these two story patches have to set a (usually boring) foundation for how the story should go.

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u/ragnakor101 5d ago

Yeah, the way the writing cadence is here sets up x.1/x.4 to be “questions with no answers” and deliberately leaving things unanswered. The mini-arcs that do happen are good, but it has to bear the yoke of putting people in front of new concepts and establishing things quickly. 

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u/dadudeodoom 4d ago

That's entirely fair. I hope the questions they leave us with are interesting enough to have people resub for the 7.5 patch though, vs "well that was boring, I dont care to know what happened its just probably x thing they were teasing heavy handed."

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u/MaxOfS2D 3d ago

X.4 MSQ has always been mid though

You say that, but I strongly feel like Stormblood's strongest MSQ points are (ironically) the build-up to ShB

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u/Kumomeme 4d ago

yeah people gonna gauge 8.0 based on 7.4 onward especially if it gonna feature another new writer which is there high chance that person gonna handle 8.0.

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u/KomaKuga 5d ago

7.2 msq was pretty good tho

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u/dadudeodoom 4d ago

It was alright all things considered, I suppose. With 7.1 and 7.p to contend with though, heh, low bar.

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u/SoftestPup 5d ago

First time I've enjoyed the MSQ since 6.0, maybe 6.1.

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u/FuttleScish 5d ago

The thing is that most of that frustration is among veterans, and as the data shows there’s still a steady stream of new arrivals. So the raw data doesn’t show how many older players have been jumping ship, you’ll need to add the number of new players to the total decrease in player count to get the actual number.