Final Fantasy XIV – Stormblood
MMORPG Expansions that Exploded the Games’ Active Player Base
Final Fantasy XIV’s original release was a dumpster fire, but that didn’t stop the developers. Well, technically it did, but only in the sense that they stopped working on the original version, scrapped everything, went back to the drawing board, and rebuilt the game from scratch into one of the most popular modern MMORPGs. It was no World of Warcraft, at least not until Stormblood released. Stormblood’s promised features were too tempting: improved combat, new classes in the form of the Samurai and series-iconic Red Mage, and raids that brought fans back to the land of Ivalice —the setting of every Final Fantasy Tactics game and Final Fantasy XII. These were just the icing on Stormblood’s cake that took the community by storm, and the expansion has continued to wow audiences with plenty of new and nostalgic content.
In August of 2017, several months after the release of the Stormblood expansion, it was reported Final Fantasy XIV amassed more than 10 million players. This isn’t just limited to subscriptions though, as the game is essentially free, up to level 35 (Stormblood increased the max level to 70).
Still, Final Fantasy XIV took just under four years to obtain 10 million players, which is an impressive feat that eludes most MMOs. It’s not every day a game comes back from a literally apocalyptic launch to become the only MMO that can challenge World of Warcraft for player population.
