When Final Fantasy 14 first launched in 2010, it was an absolute shambles. And yet, 11 years, 3 expansions and one total reboot later, director Naoki Yoshida explains that the colossal MMO is now the most profitable Final Fantasy of the lot.
Yoshida mentioned in a digital preview event that FF14 recently hit 24 million players (thanks, IGN). That's more than double where the game sat in 2017, reaching 10 million subscribers with the game's second major expansion, Stormblood.
Yoshida now claims that FF14 is the most profitable of any Final Fantasy entry. Granted, most other FF games are linear, one-and-done RPGs while 14 is an ongoing MMO with a monthly subscription and in-game store. But it's still surprising that the once-troubled MMO has outperformed the more famous entries like Final Fantasy 7.
"You all know just how hard things were for us with the original Final Fantasy 14," said Yoshida. "Since then, we were able to transform the title into one that provides a major contribution to our company's profits."
He went on to say it is now the most proftiable entry in the Final Fantasy series. "It's perhaps unbecoming of me to say but in terms of our business, we've been able to achieve great success. Moving forward, we're going to spare no expense with our investments to ensure that this game continues to be one which our players can enjoy."
Despite much of FF14's newfound surge in popularity coming from a so-called exodus from WoW, Yoshida isn't keen on pitting the two games against each other—notable saying that "this whole conversation about surpassing WoW is the wrong conversation to have and it's honestly irritating".
Final Fantasy 14 is currently ramping up for its fourth and (not quite) final expansion, Endwalker. Alongside a climactic story and new classes, Endwalker also hopes to improve the state of FF14's housing market by ditching the first-come, first-served approach.
