


One high-profile WoW detractor, the streamer Asmongold, may have played a role in this, as he announced he would start Final Fantasy XIV in early June. Overall, the game saw a massive spike in Twitch viewership last month-according to TwitchTracker, its average viewers has sat around 4k for the past two months, but climbed to 6.5k in April, 7.2k in May, and 35.8k in June, almost hitting 10 million total hours viewed in one month. Wow the #FFXIV servers are completely locked down to new characters so they stopped selling the digital version of the game for now. If people are looking to get their MMORPG fix elsewhere, Square Enix offers a pretty forgiving refuge. Final Fantasy XIV is not grind-free, but its trial version offers an astounding amount of content for free, allowing players to play the core game and first expansion, up to level 60, before committing. Blizzard has long led the genre, but recent expansions have been pushing players away with its ever-complicated gear farming process. On top of its own momentum, it appears to be picking up detractors from World of Warcraft. Anticipation is high for the next expansion, Endwalker, which is due in November, especially with the release of its benchmark software over the weekend. Overall, Final Fantasy XIV has seen tremendous growth over the last few years through its Shadowbringers expansion. What’s causing this unprecedented spike? There seem to be a few contributing factors. Things seem to have evened out now, but a few servers are still listed as too congested for new characters as of this writing. However, the game’s servers were at capacity overnight, which disabled new character creation on all servers at one point. The PS4 and PS5 versions still appear available through the PlayStation Store, as well. Other, less ideal bundles of the game are still available through the company’s website, while the Complete Edition is available on Steam. Square Enix’s online store is currently sold out of Final Fantasy XIV, amid a spike in demand for the MMORPG.
