Population Decline?

I'm fairly new to Unicorn (couple weeks shy of 3 months), so it should be noted that I do not know if what I am observing the last several weeks is the result of a downward spiral or just how things have always been.

My observation, however, has been a seemingly low number of people online on the server. I have yet to see more than 1200 people online during my play times, and quite often, the number is in the 900s. My play schedule has me in-game from roughly 3-8pm EDT and 11p-3a EDT.

In comparison, albeit a year ago, I rarely if ever saw less than 3000 people online on Fenrir during the same timeframes.

For those of you on Unicorn, is the server just less populated than others, are the numbers on the decline, or are my playtimes out of whack with when the majority of our players play?

For those of you on other servers, have you observed a decline in your numbers as well, and if so, to what do you attribute the decline?

I'm sure this can be partially attributed to the eventual release of FFXIV, as several of my in-game acquantainces have already decided to quit XI and wait for XIV. It just seems to me that XIV can't be the only reason for what, on paper, appears to be such a steep decline.

Well it's currently peak play time for like... Hawaii maybe... and there's 1101 on Odin. However, having seen over 5000 people online at once at around the time the server was closed, a bit over a year later and we might see 3000 people on-line during the busiest time.

But meh, closed server, different situation.

SE should start to merger servers. Yeah, the thought of this happening will probably piss off/hurt a lot of people, but come on, having more people on all servers would be nice.

Edit to my last post:



Being on a smaller server can be a pain in the *** for some things, but also a blessing for others, servers will eventually get merged if the population gets too low, but until that time, make good use of the low competition on everything.

'bout right over here.

I would kill myself right then and there if there were that many people on my server.

Right now my server has 1061 people on and I still think it's too crowded. c.c

Fairy typically holds steady between 1000-1300 people. Back in the day there were easily 3000+, but the highest I've seen in weeks is 1700.

I have noticed a decline on my server, a merge would be nice, but like others had said, ppl would get pissy.

At 8 am EDT there are like ~2300 ppl on (Japanese main time)
at 13 am EDT there are like ~1000 ppl
at like 10 pm EDT there are like arround ~1300 ppl online
- including Rmt's and so on...

If neccesary its always an option. I hope SE wouldn't wait for players to leave their server in mass using the transfer option (thus paying money).

Either way, more botters on my server ? No, thanks, we got enough.

There's been a slow decline since they shut the doors on Odin, but it was absolutely ridiculous back then. You could be waiting an hour to get into Nyzul Isle, and forget about Dynamis schedules (which is still a problem, although not quite as bad).

Still, it's alsothe start of the school year for both college and secondary school (large portion of the player base) and that ALWAYS has a significant impact on server activity.

I know in my Linkshell, we run all year, but in places like Sky especially, we see a whole crapload of "Summer LS", and by mid/late-September, we have nights where we're the only LS in Sky (those are fun when you have 20-30 people there, you can do EVERYTHING!).

I recall one night getting 3 Despot, 2 Water/OG, 2 Dio/Ulli, MG, Zip, 2 Faust, 2 SC and I think we did 3 BB that night, too. When you have free run of the place, early arrivals with ToD on everything, and a huge orgy of people, well, it's crazy.

What I'm sayin' is, the "emptiness" can be awesome in its own way!

I personally like Titan the way it is now. During the weekdays, population seems to be 900-1100. I like it. On weekends, the number seems to jump around 2300, and it tends to feel crowded at that time.

I aggree with this. 3~4 years back they added 10 or 15 servers, not sure exact number. Players were offered a free transfer to migrate to the new server. Before the transfer i remember seeing over 10k people online during peak JP time on a friday/saturday night.

However i can almost guarantee they wouldn't do this for a few reasons i can think of. 1) shows players/perspective players that game is on a down slope, also how would they decide which servers to close?

The reason why Fenrir has higher numbers during your play times is cause your a normal NA peak player, and Fenrir has a much higher number of NA players compared to Uni. Here on Uni our main player base is JP. I see 2k+ during JP prime time, and around 3k on weekends. The NA prime time usually is 1k+ weekdays and gets close to 2k weekends.

I actually love it on Uni, but maybe that's due to my playtime 8pmEst(11amJst) - 8amEst(11pmJst) and i have a fair number of Jp friends.

I'm not a bot user(dont do HNM) and don't condone bots, but the only thing botting is huge on is HNM. I highly doubt you would bots on many other Nm's other then King Arther, Eastern Shadow, and that pos Argus.

Currently 2k ppl online on leviathan, morning for NA (10am) and bed time for JP's (11pm) so not too bad. I have seen a number of ppl quit but have run into a load of ppl who are picking up the game again after a years break.

Also don't forget that a significant portion of most servers HNM players got banhammered back in jan plus the normal rmt bannings both which will affect server numbers.

On Ramuh, we currently average at about 1.5k maximum, barely trickling down close to 800. I remember us being at around 5-7k.

I have to say that many reasons are what everyone here is saying; school, banning, character's being hacked, RMT crackdowns, the economy *irl*, people quitting for various reasons (ex; ff14, just because, etc), SE's policy canges with credit cards. The list goes on. These are all the combinations which is the cause of the lower populations.

FFXI has been out for several years now and a lot has changed over the years in both the game and the people in it so this is to be expected I think.
However this situation can be both of uncertainty and a blessing in disguise. While some folks left because of 14, keep in mind that some may stay, some may come back depending if they like it or not. Other MMOs have been this way, so FFXI is no exception. None of us can really determine right now how FF14 will really be until the final product; its all in speculation right now. This situation is in a ying and yang flux in the circumstances such as hunting NMs, Dynamis areas, and so on.

This game may be old by today's standards but I feel with great optimism that FFXI still has some life left even with all these radical changes occurring. I still play, and will do so until the game completely shuts down. So I wouldn't pack your bags just yet because of this influx of current server populations.

This is based on NA peak times, not JP:

Since school/university started up again, Valefor has about 900-1000 in the afternoon on weekdays, about 1200 or so on weeknights and 1900-2100 on weekend evenings.

I'm willing to bet that no one has quit FFXI because of FFXIV. The game's not even close to being ready for Beta.

I'm sure we will see a few here and a few there the first month or two leading up to FFXIV, but for the most part i'm going to guess that atleast 90% of FFXIV's population that came directly from FFXI played 11 the week before 14 release. I know i will(unless life says no playing on this day).

How deserted is 11 going to be the weak of release onward. I know i will be playing 14 and 11 simultaniously. But i'm an addict to 11, I'll always be around.

Let's face it, the game is getting old. That and there has been a bunch of other new games coming out. Example Aion. I know a few people in my shell are waiting to play that. So it's to be expected that an aged game starts to lose people for newer games.

I'm still amazed SE locked up Odin. On weekends we sometimes got to 5000 players online, and during the week around 1200-2000. I think they mentioned that we had about 70,000 characters on our server? You can't tell me every player has about 8 mules, or a lot of people playing at very random times.

What timezone do you play in to be amazed they locked Odin? Even up until 6 months ago, if we did our nyzul run too late (we're an hour ahead of JP time) we'd have to wait ages to get in. 6 months earlier again and we've actually been booted from nyzul mid-run, along with about 4 other parties because it was so full. Then there were the constant issues of dc'ing when zoning into whitegate because it was full (700 people), and god forbid you ever try and enter Al Zahbi less than an hour before it was due to start. And that's just all the technical server issues, the over-population made so many things unnecessarily difficult, partying at any level, farming anything, anywhere, meriting, camping NM's. Around the time it was locked there was not a single damn thing on Odin you could do where you didn't have competition. Being closed had a few downsides, but it was closed for a very good reason, and remains so to prevent that happening again (the day they open Odin there will be a LOT of people rushing to the server).

Motokosun, many people have left FFXI because of FFXIV regardless of the fact that it's probably over a year from release. I can think of a couple or reasons why that might be, but there's not much point discussing it as it's down to the individual, but I assure you it has happened already, and will continue to happen.

All i meant was i doubt someone /quit to play FFXIV, seeing how it's a mininum of 1yr+ away. That's all i was implying. But i do know a person who quit because of the release of 14. He said there was no point lvl'in, gear'n, etc. when there won't be more then a few hundred people online. So yes there are those people who see the end and want to stop investing. But i'm optimistic.

Getting back on topic this time of the year has always seemed low in servers numbers compared to the prior part of the year. Summers ending and colds coming so people outside the domicile more, School just started so many students are focussing on that until about mid-term when it seems play hours go way back up for students, And then lastly FFXI has been up and running for 7years, and since the release there has been many new good MMO's released to take away players. I think for being a 7yr old and having released such a bad expansion (for keeping players playing) we still have a nice sized player base.

For me it sometimes does feel like theres alot less people then in the past, but you also need to remember how much more content has been added so players have been spread thinner.

I don't see why people are worried about smaller server populations, I think that the disadvantages of a large server population (i.e. Dynamis jacking, large amounts of NM competition, large competition in economic niches, crowded merit camps etc.) outweigh the disadvantages of a smaller server population (i.e. less people for shout ***and parties). In the end anything around 1200-1500 is probably the ideal population for FFXI if you can keep that amount online 24-7.

The ***? o_O I'd hate to be in a server that big.

For the OP: Fenrir's not as big as it used to be either, 800-2500 depending on day and time.

Yup 3000 weekday and 5000 weekend were normal.

My old Nyzul Static met at 11 AM EST, which basically put us at the end part of JP Primetime. It wasn't the ideal time to go, but it was when we all had the few hours free, and we'd usually follow Nyzul runs with ToAU missions or nation rank missions, WSNMs, etc. for people in the group.

I miss my old SMLS (SundayMorningLS) but it served its purpose and more.

I don't miss waiting in a huge mob of people hammering the gates of Nyzul to get in, or basically never meritting on weekends because you knew that every camp was full without even checking. 3 parties at Birds, 2-4 parties at Mamool SP, etc.

I used to merit on Trolls just because I knew it would be open. Heck, I wasn't averse to an old-fashioned KRT Monkburn, even within the last year, because you KNEW there wouldn't be anyone there (plus it's exciting to see 3 BB Monks eat Red Curry and put their lives and gil in your hands as their WHM).

Anyway, the only part of server lockout that I don't like is that my friend can't make a mule, and that a few people who left to other servers can't come back. Overall, I'm glad we're closed. No "Brogames" on Odin!

GMT+1, Western Europe. And I either check late in our afternoon or early evening, when the JAP players are still up and the US is awakening.

@OP

I LOVE that there aren't a lot of people on during normal NA times. There is never any competition for any of the events my LS does and we are able to get ***done quick.

It was nice going up to Sky and having it all to ourselves.