Final Fantasy XIV might be nearly a decade old (or over a decade old if you count the original version released in 2010) but the MMORPG is more popular than ever. After the early access release of its latest and highly anticipated expansion, Endwalker, FF XIV has set a new record for active players on Steam reaching 90k earlier today.
And it’s likely that over the next few days, that record will get shattered as more players jump online.
Final Fantasy XIV’s new expansion isn’t even officially out yet, but for folks who pre-ordered it, they were able to jump in starting yesterday via an early access release. Just a little over 24 hours later and now FFXIV has set a new record for active players according to SteamDB.
As I’m writing this, FFXIV currently sits at 91,699 players on Steam. The previous record for peak players was set back in July and was a little over 67k. Even more impressive, as spotted by PCGamesN, is the fact that since June of this year, the popular MMO has more than doubled its active playerbase on Steam. Back then the peak player count was hovering around 41k.
Of course, the main reason for the huge influx of players is down to a new expansion releasing after years of the playerbase growing and expanding.
Another factor helping FFXIV is likely the recent allegations of company-wide abuse and sexual harassment facing Activision Blizzard. This has pushed many players and streamers away from World of Warcraft in the past few months, potentially accelerating and already shrinking player base for Blizzard’s once venerable MMO.
And while the 91k players currently playing FFXIV is certainly a lot, it’s very likely that once Endwalker is available to everyone, not just those who pre-ordered the game, the game’s active player count will continue to skyrocket, possibly pushing the MMO beyond the 100k player threshold on Steam for the first time since it released nearly a decade ago.