Final Fantasy XIV experienced a massive surge in its player base this year. What’s odd is that this happened during a lull between content patches, so we really haven’t seen the impact this will have on a major content release. With the Endwalker expansion just hours away from launching (in its early access period), we’re about to see just how many players the Final Fantasy XIV servers can handle.
Square Enix is very aware of this. They’ve been trying to get some new servers so they can add new Worlds ahead of Endwalker, but the global semiconductor shortage made sure that wasn’t going to happen. The existing servers have been beefed up as much as possible, but the FF14 community is anticipating the largest concurrent player numbers in the game’s decade-long history.
I did play a bit during the Shadowbringers launch back in 2019, and I remember wait times being an hour or more during peak hours. With the currently bloated player numbers, Endwalker’s could be even longer.
With that in mind, subscribed players will have priority over those who are enjoying the free trial. My guess is that if you’re on a free account, you’re probably not going to be able to log in for a while. If you’re a paid subscriber, you might be given the option to log into a different World on your Data Center.
For those itching to experience Endwalker, the new zones are going to be jam-packed with players, so there will be multiple instances of each zone. If you’re in a party, you could very well end up in a different instance than your party members. While that’s not the ideal player experience, it’s better than being stuck in a queue.
Additionally, creating a new character is going to be a bit precarious for a while. If you’re planning on creating a fresh character, you might have to do so during the game’s quieter hours. For me in Central Time, those seem to be early in the morning and the early afternoon — I’d say between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. I’ve been on pretty late, and the game really seems to be hopping all night long.
If you want to read more about the wait times and what Square Enix is doing about them, you can read this lengthy post on the Final Fantasy XIV Lodestone website.
Good luck on those login queues, folks, and I’ll see you in Endwalker!
