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FFXI Vana'diel Census {9th Update Released, Link Inside!}
Khrymson
Member UncommonPosts: 3,090
Decided to dig this out of page 5 on the FFXI forums and re-post this over here as its important information for the Final Fantasy XI and XIV community to know about! Especially for those interested in giving Final Fantasy XI Trial a go because of all the hype with FFXIV that will be ongoing for the next year and beyond!
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A consistent 500,000+ population, and rising!
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9th Vana'diel Census ~ FINAL FANTASY XI has celebrated seven illustrious years of service since its launch in Japan, and as of June this year, boasted a population of over 2.35 million characters.
8th Vana'diel Census ~ On May 16, 2008, FINAL FANTASY XI celebrates its six-year anniversary since its launch in Japan, and will blaze a trail into its seventh year of service! With adventurers now blazing trails across Vana'diel's time stream in the fourth expansion pack, Wings of the Goddess, and with the addition of a “World Transfer Service,” FINAL FANTASY XI's thriving community has grown to more than 500,000 users.
7th Vana'diel Census ~ On May 16, 2007, FINAL FANTASY XI entered its sixth year of service! FINAL FANTASY XI has steadily grown over the months and years into a thriving community of more than 500,000 users.
6th Vana'diel Census ~ On May 16, 2006, FINAL FANTASY XI celebrates the 4-year mark since its launch in Japan, and prepares to enter a fifth year of service! First, let's analyze the login distribution. There are over 500,000 players logging in to FINAL FANTASY XI from all over the world, with the main player base located in Japan, North America, and Europe.
5th Vana'diel Census ~ Let's move on to the distribution of main job levels. Based on data compiled at the end of March 2005, we conducted research on the main job levels of over 1,550,000 characters belonging to over 500,000 registered users.
4th Vana'diel Census ~ May 16, 2004 marks the second anniversary of FINAL FANTASY XI's Japanese launch. We have carried out our fourth "Vana'diel Census" especially for this anniversary, and we have analyzed our community in detail as it has grown to be the largest of its kind in the world. As indicated in the chart below, the number of active FINAL FANTASY XI players (or, the number of paying customers with at least one character) has topped 500,000.
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Over 2,000,000 Active Characters!
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Vana'dielian Population Tops Two Million! (04/22/2009)
It is our distinct pleasure to announce that during the third week of April, the total number of active characters across all worlds in FINAL FANTASY XI has exceeded the two million mark for the first time!
Since the commencement of service on May 16th, 2002, Vana'diel has gone on to become a vibrant gathering place for adventurers hailing from all corners of the globe. Boasting four expansions and one add-on scenario with two more in the pipes, FINAL FANTASY XI continues to evolve into an ever richer realm of magic and adventure.
We would like to thank you, our fans, for your loyal patronage over the years, and look forward to your continued support for many more to come.
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Comments
Characters are nothing to brag about, each account can have up to 16 (Per server even?).
Active users/accounts is a bragging point, and one which FF11 is entitled to, FF11 is doing better than WAR, AOC, and EVE.
Characters are something to brag about in FF11.
Each new character slot costs 1USD, so for 500,000 people to each be paying ~20$ a month is significant.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
Just because there are 16 character slots doesn't mean that everyone has more than 1 character! There really is no need for a 2nd character anymore with all the extra storage options for gear now. In the past sure, plus it was good to have a mule in another nation near the AH.
Still though, most players don't have more than 1 character, and SE has never counted lvl 1 mule characters in any of their polls. I could definitely see this next Census coming in at 750k to 950k players if not more!
FFXI is doing better than most of the MMO in recent years combined....
Characters are something to brag about in FF11.
Each new character slot costs 1USD, so for 500,000 people to each be paying ~20$ a month is significant.
Backing up what she said. You pay for content ID's a month. The initial Content ID is around 12.95USD a month and every additional content ID (I.E. character slot) is .99 cents a month I believe up to a maximum of 16? So someone who has 16 Content ID's is paying twice as much as someone with just 1. Although I have no clue why you would ever need 16 characters in this game?
FFXI has always had a pretty devoted following and has always maintained a very healthy population with most servers having 2000+ players 24/7 due to the servers being Worldwide. This means that at any time (6am est) the servers are generally pretty full. This is the population of most WoW servers at peak times, but on WoW at 6am est on most servers there may be 400 or so people on. FFXI has always been one of the liveliest MMO's to participate in at any given time.
Anyone questioning FFXI sub numbers and success should know how solid, constant, and strong it has been for it's entire lifetime.
Most FF players are quite casual it seems.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
9th Vana'diel Census has been released! Check it out using the link above!
Some very interesting data this year, not to mention 2.35 million characters and as a rough estimate assuming everyone that plays has at least 2 characters which I know not everyone does.{no reason to have more than 2} That would put the population across all servers at a very healthy 1,175,000 players! Up from 500,000k thats been reported over the past 7 years is truly impressive!
Personally IMO, I see the population at around 1,750,000 - 2,200,000 especially since there have been much better and larger means of storage over the past few years making a mule not as useful. Also must note again that SE doesn't count lvl 1 mule characters in any of this anyway! So its possible that the real population really is 2,350,000 unique players!
I call zombie bullshit ... (wait ... playing Left for Dead too much ) I call bullshit ...
There is NO WAY BRD is 3% of the population ... and even more bullshit is the idea that PUP isn't last.
Ehhh... I don't know if I'd go that far. People *do* level alts beyond just a level 1 mule. And I doubt the population has as much as tripled, much less quadrupled, in the last year.
I'd say they definitely got more subscriptions, but not *that* many.
In fact, I find the fact that they focus on unique characters but say nothing of the actual number of subscriptions to be a bit odd. They have given sub numbers every other year... why change it up this year?
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Does that include trials? because recently I returned to FFXI on my server Asura and it seems like there are much less players then there were when I originally playing, maybe the increasing number is because its including trial accounts?
I'd also like to add like the previous poster said its odd that they aren't giving sub numbers. It wouldn't make sense for them to release a new MMO in 1-2 years if it was having such a large increase.
Well that's not necessarily true. If they released a MMO that was directly competing with FFXI (ie. the same type of gameplay, etc), then it wouldn't make sense. What they seem to be doing with XIV is targeting a portion of the playerbase that wouldn't necessarily play XI.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
FFXI is having a large increase in subs because of all the recent changes that have made it more accessible to a more casual player. Allowing grouping anywhere after lvl 10 with anyone has been a major improvement and allows one to play in certain areas longer or skip others entirely.
Then of course all the press that FFXIV is getting currently and just from one CG video is generating a ton of interest in FFXI. Its not only that though, as I'm seeing a ton of players all over just bored to death with the current systems in everything, and FFXI is the only unquie MMO out atm that plays nothing like everything else. So with the greater accessibilty now as well all the hype tons of players are hoping in to check it out and I'm assuming quite a few are sticking around.
I doubt SE would pull an SOE and count trial numbers, as that falls into the category of a lvl 1 mule as well! I see countless players getting fed up before they learn how to move their character or that its the end of everything cause they have to read a short storyline scene right at start up. Of course there is also the infamous this game doesn't have WASD, or it looks like shit....well try learning the controls and how to access the menu and change things first ya numnuts...rofl!