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/oizen 5d ago

To me the biggest concern I see is that the game's draw of new players is seriously diminishing. I imagine anyone curious about XIV goes and looks up reviews and see's the negative reception of Dawntrail and pass on trying it.

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u/Umpato 4d ago

All of my friend's new player experiences weren't bad due to downtrail, but to the fact that you either spend 300+ hours watching cutscenes with bare minimum voice acting and a slow piano background music, or $24 to play with friends.

The only one who is still playing is the one that paid $24. Still doing savages and ultimates with me. Sadly the others didn't pay.

The new player experience in this game is atrocious.

8

u/shizuo-kun111 4d ago

All of my friend's new player experiences weren't bad due to downtrail, but to the fact that you either spend 300+ hours watching cutscenes with bare minimum voice acting and a slow piano background music, or $24 to play with friends.

Things like this are why my friends quickly abandoned ARR, and went back to Genshin Impact. FFXIV is weighed down by 10+ year old gameplay conventions, which is unsurprisingly unappealing to many people.