Square Enix has revealed thatFinal Fantasy XIVis one of its most financially successful releases, and, having spent just under 400 hours in the game, I totally get it. I first started playingFF14almost a decade ago, and have been an on-and-off player ever since. While my 400-hour playtime may sound impressive on the surface, it’s actually considered fairly low-commitment; I’ve wasted far too many hours at the Gold Saucer, and still haven’t even touchedthe latest expansion,Dawntrail.
Still,it’s plainly obvious, at least to me, whyFF14is a success. Although I’m a little surprised to hear its sales have left things likethe massively successfulFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthin the dust, I’m not at all surprised that it’s been a success, and that it’s continued to succeed over the years since it’s been released. It doesn’t always do everything right, but it has a lot going for it, and it fairly consistently rights its wrongs while continuing to innovate and improve.FF14isn’t perfect, but its success story should serve as a model to Square Enix when it comes to moving forward with its flagship properties.
Final Fantasy XIV Is Still Soaring In 2025
How FF14 Performed This Year
Square Enixrecently shared a financial results report for its fiscal year ending on August 15, 2025, andFF14makes a strong showing. The report divides Square’s output in the past year into three categories: first is HD games, including its PC and home console new releases, in this case things likeSaGa: Emerald Beyond,Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, andFantasian Neo Dimension. In this category, Square Enix reports that net sales are down, despite a “return to profit,” which it attributes to the unanticipatedsuccess of theDragon Quest 3remake.
Another category is “Games for Smart Devices/PC Browser”; in other words, mobile games. This includes things likeFinal Fantasy 7: Ever CrisisandWar of the Visions, which shut downshortly before the end of Square’s fiscal year. In this sector, Square reported “operating income sharply down on weakness in existing titles” - in other words,its mobile games didn’t do too well.
The third and final category is"MMO," which encompassesFinal Fantasy 14and the Japan-onlyDragon Quest X. Here,Square reports “operating income up,” which it specifically attributes to the successful release ofDawntrail. Net sales in this category are up by 8.2 billion yen (about $56 million) year over year, and operating income is up 2.6 billion (about $18 million). This is the only category to show unmitigated growth year over year, and a significant amount of growth at that. And when you look atFF14as it is today, it should be pretty clear why.
Why Final Fantasy XIV Is Resonating With Fans
FF14’s Success Story
First and foremost,the biggest key toFF14’s success is its obvious quality. Simply put, it’s just a good game. It has a strong story, pretty visuals, beautiful music, and fun gameplay. People get into it because they get attached to its characters, or they appreciate its dungeon design and enjoy developing their characters, leveling up along its various classes. That’s what drew me in, and what’s kept me coming back for a decade.
There’s also the simple fact thatFF14is able to profit more year over year because of its status as an MMO. Most of Square Enix’s other games are single-player RPGs - you buy them once, and you own them forever, and unless there’s DLC, you never spend any money on them ever again. ButFF14is a little more expensive.
Sure, it has the extended free trial, but after that,you have to pay a subscription feeto keep going. Even after that, you have to buy a new expansion ever couple of years if you want to keep up with the latest content, which just means more money from every player for Square Enix. And that’s not even to mention the microtransactions.
Microtransactions inFF14are largely cosmetic, and rarely used for gameplay purposes.
But, to make all that money worth it,FF14is consistently updated with new content, which has kept it interesting over the years. It’s not just combat and dungeons, either. As an MMO,FF14has become Square Enix’s most expansive game, which meansthere’s something for every playerin it. There arethe hardcoreFF14raiders, the crafters, the roleplayers, the fashionistas, the casual players, et cetera. Every one of them has their place in the game, and every one of them gets new content - if not with every single update, at least with reasonable regularity.
Of course, things weren’t always that way. Somewhat infamously,FF14had a disastrous launchthat resulted in much of the game being scrapped, and starting again from scratch asA Realm Reborn. I won’t get into the whole success story, though it is fascinating - I only mention this to say that the harrowing experience of the original version’s failure seems to have created a unique mindset in the developers.
As a result, theFF14team ishyper-vigilant when it comes to fan feedback. It doesn’t try to please everyone, but it’s good at sensing when there’s a real problem and addressing it in updates. Evenyears-long quality-of-life complaintsare subject to change. This not only helps avoid player frustration, but also ensures that the game is consistently improving and staying current over the years. PlayingFF14today looks and feels noticeable different from it did when I started, and that’s an incredible thing to be able to say about a decade-old game.
At the end of the day, you don’t need to look at the sales numbers to understand whyFF14is so successful. I feel it every time I log in. Standing in the middle of Limsa, listening to all the chatter around me, watching players run around in circles, show off their outfits, play live concerts, whatever it happens to be -FF14feels alive not only because of the tools it gives the player, but because of how the community uses them.
There’s a lesson to be learned here, and it’s not that Square Enix needs to go full-tilt into the MMO business.FF14has been successful because it’s a good game, because the developers know what their players want and aim to deliver it to them, and because it has a robust and lively community. I hope to seeFinal Fantasy 14inspire more of Square Enix’s output in the near future.
