Final Fantasy XIV Sets New Concurrency Record on Steam, Offers Free Playtime as Compensating Queue

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker isn’t even officially out yet, but the expansion has drawn a lot of players to the fantasy MMORPG. The game set a new record for concurrent players on Steam this weekend, peaking at 95,150 players around 11am PST earlier today, according to data from SteamDB. The last time the game set an all-time record on Steam was on July 2021 with just over 64,000 players.

Keep in mind that the expansion is still in pre-order, and the majority of Final Fantasy XIV players haven’t even played the game on Steam. The live player factor plays through Square Enix’s launcher and PlayStation 4 players and you’re probably watching hundreds of thousands of players trying to log in at the same time, this not good for queuing time. Players are reporting 6k + player queue, the waiting time is oddly long, and login error that immediately takes you back to the last line.

Producer and CEO Naoki Yoshida said that they are aware of the issue and have let players 7 days free game play as compensation. The free time will be available when the expansion officially launches on December 7^NS and will also be available to players who sign up for 30 days.

“Across the FFXIV service as a whole, the number of concurrent logins has reached the hardware limit and as a result, the login takes an extremely long time, especially during ‘peak hours’ when we have tend to see increased player activity. For this, I am truly sorry,” Yoshida said.

In the meantime, players can check rush hour timetable for each zone here so they can schedule playtime around them. Yoshida says that they’re also working on fixing other issues in the game, including miscalculated XP rewards, mutable Paladin gear, and buggy NPCs.

If you’re still stuck in the queue, why not relax with Sia’s interpretation of Fly Me To The Moon, specially made for the upcoming expansion.