MMOs have long lifespans and lots of content but can often surge and slip in popularity over the years. Final Fantasy XIV is one long-running MMO, released over ten years ago. With a decade of content under its belt, is FFXIV still worth playing in 2023? We answer that question in detail below!
Final Fantasy XIV gets better with every expansion
Final Fantasy XIV is infamous for its turnaround. After a disappointing initial release, the game was rebuilt from the ground up into Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (ARR), the foundation and starting point of the game today. Ever since, the game has released better and better expansions every two years.
Don't just take our word for it. On Metacritic, the original release rated just a 49 overall. With the release of ARR, that spiked to 83, rising to 86 for the first expansion, 87 for the second, and the latest two expansions, Shadowbringers and Endwalker, have rated 91 and 90 on Metacritic, respectively. The game is on a clear upward trend and is perhaps at its absolute peak, having become one of the highest-rated MMOs of all time, alongside Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft.
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FFXIV has thousands of hours of content
If you're looking for content, Final Fantasy XIV is swimming in it. While even triple-A games can struggle to find that "value for money" point, this isn't a struggle for Final Fantasy XIV, which has over 200 to 300 hours of content squeezed into its free trial alone. Then, if you choose to buy and subscribe, you're opening up another three full expansions of content, with literally thousands of hours of content.
The main story alone can take up to 300 hours, depending on how devoted you are to playing through it, and with side content and the end game, you easily push into the four digits. And that's even without alts, time-limited events, and grinding content designed to eat more time. Even with the subscription, Final Fantasy XIV is one of the best value games ever made.
FFXIV actively rewards the player base for playing older content
One huge issue with many MMOs is finding that older zones and locations are dead, old dungeons take hours to pop, and no one is running old content. Final Fantasy XIV has essentially solved this issue due to how it incentivizes max-level players to run older content on alt jobs thanks to its duty roulette system. Once a day, players can get a huge boost to experience from running a randomly selected dungeon, trial, or raid. Roulette users will also gain extra Tomestones and other rewards. This means no content is dead.
What's more, the game runs numerous Moogle Tomestone events a year. These aim to push players into lesser-run content to lower queue times for new players or while player populations shrink slightly during breaks between patches. The event rewards players with more bonuses for running specific dungeons, bringing neglected content to life.
Finally, FFXIV never abandons old zones. Whether for Relic Weapon grinds, side quests, event quests, or just in-between expansion patch content, the game makes sure it sends you back to the important zones.
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There's so much more to come in FFXIV!
If you're not content with 90 levels of content, four expansions, and thousands of hours of gameplay, then don't worry. There's plenty more to come! The game's story is ongoing, and although Endwalker marked the finale of the game's first story arc, the game's director, Naoki Yoshida, has promised many more stories to tell. On a radio show in September, Yoshida explained that 7.0, the game's next expansion, is already written and that there are new jobs (classes) in development.
What's more, the game isn't going anywhere anytime soon. One of the most heartbreaking things that can happen to an MMO is to see it close. Fortunately, there's no danger in that happening for FFXIV, which is currently Square Enix's most lucrative game title as of Q2 2022.
Even if it wasn't, Square Enix has set a precedent of keeping its older MMOs alive with FFXIV's sister title Final Fantasy XI, which has been running since 2002, with its most recent expansion released in 2020. That title ran with yearly and bi-yearly expansions for the first 11 years of its existence and has seen continued support for the past nine. This was even after its supposed "Finale" expansion in 2015.
So overall, Final Fantasy XIV is here to stay. It's one of the most popular MMOs in the world, at the peak of its popularity. 2023 is the perfect time to jump in and experience it again or for the first time.
Thinking of getting into Final Fantasy XIV? Check out What is the best Final Fantasy 14 expansion? on Pro Game Guides.
Michael lives in the UK, but wishes he lived in Eorzea. A life-long gamer, Four years ago, he ditched a "real" job to write about video games for a living, and hasn't looked back. When not guiding players how to get the latest mounts, crafting recipes, and in-game goodies, he spends his time nurturing an unhealthy addiction to MMOs and gacha games.