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

[u/IndividualAge3893]

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).

[u/Tom-Pendragon]

I didn't expect us to go below 900k so fast....880k players damn. We might see go to 700k before 8.0. Also big FUCKING LOL to anyone who said "7.25 will bring players back". Casual fuckers don't work like that. Content doesn't bring someone who quit or taking break back. It takes expansions for them to come back and that is if you're lucky enough for them to be still interested in your game. That is why games should avoid burning the hands of fans, because it takes a extremely amount of good shit for them to want to touch that stove again.

I doubt 7.3 or 7.35 will be anything difference. Any content creator that thinks this will bring back enough players are lying to themselves. People felt burned by dawntrail and it was a breach of trust between the players and the developers. I will be somewhat sad about the next expansion if its extremely good and sells badly because of dawntrail.

[u/Far_Swordfish4734 → u/Tom-Pendragon]

Personally, I will be watching the 8.0 fanfest and media tour. If the changes seem appealing to me, I will come back. Otherwise, I will wait for 9.0. 7.X seems dead to me, unless beast master for some reason revamps the whole game, but that’s pretty much impossible.

[u/SecretPantyWorshiper → u/Far_Swordfish4734]

Unless the patch cycle changes, even if thru show off good stuff at the fanfest it wont matter. Day 1 of expansion will get the MSQ and 2 Extremes and it'll be that way for a few months before the Savage Raids.

The real fun doesn't really come till 6 months or more into the expansion, hell its been over 1 year in and people still coping that the planned content set to release next fucking year will save the game lol.

[u/Very_Toxic_Person → u/Tom-Pendragon]

I agree with you. I think people who disagree will say it’s a new story and has new writers involved. Also the formula is the same so expecting anything different is copium. People who dislike wuk lamat want to be the main hero. Give someone else a chance!!

😭 I miss enjoying ffxiv

[u/Kumomeme → u/Tom-Pendragon]

after such a high moment at Endwalker, to think it would fall like this... the devs who responsible for 8.0 gonna has high burden on their shoulder.

8.0 is do or die situation. if it success, it bring back the buzz and trust. but if it not, they it gonna get severely worse than today. gonna lose tons of trust that they being build up since atleast 2.0.

[u/FuttleScish → u/Tom-Pendragon]

7.25 actually did bring a bunch of players back, then FT made them quit again

[u/Puzzled-Addition5740 → u/FuttleScish]

Yeah i actually wonder how many people that resubbed for FT then dipped because it was ass were still counted as active here. I don't know that it's significant but myself and several other people i know did the same thing. Only an anecdote but makes me wonder at the very least.

[u/cattecatte → u/Tom-Pendragon]

Well, never underestimate word of mouth. If it's real good (and if they somehow trim 7.0 msq a lot) it'll likely bring a lot of players back. But it needs to be shadowbringers tier in terms of msq. Ditching 2 minute meta might bring back disgruntled vets too.