FFXIV has exploded in popularity and it’s causing some issues

I started playing Final Fantasy XIV back in 2015 when Heavensward was still receiving the last of its updates prior to the announcement of Stormblood. The game was popular then and has only grown in popularity now, as there are millions of subscribers and concurrent players playing this game as of 2021.

Word of mouth, strong reviews, and a now meme-worthy free trial that includes the excellent first expansion at no extra cost have only intensified the popularity of FFXIV in the MMO space. If you had said upon its release that FFXIV was gonna compete head to head with the behemoth that is World of Warcraft, I’d have thought you were insane.

And yet, here we are.

Square Enix ran out of what!?

Can you ever conceive of a reality where you can run out of a digital item? Apparently, you can, as excited newcomers to FFXIV have found out the hard way when they tried to buy digital codes for the game on Square’s own site. According to a post on the FFXIV subreddit, there were temporarily no available game codes to buy for anyone who was interested.

You might be wondering as to why so many people are all of a sudden jumping onto the FFXIV train and subsequently making its popularity explode. Well, aside from the aforementioned reasons why FFXIV has grown in popularity, popular World of Warcraft streamer, Asomongold, had as recently as a week ago hopped into FFXIV for the first time. This has had its own can of worms opened as it has led to the game being inundated with WoW refugees and interested subscribers.

READ MORE: Why should you play Final Fantasy XIV?

So can I play this game right now or what?

FFXIV seems like it’s still having some server issues here and there, and as someone who’s weathered two whole expansion releases, my only piece of advice to anyone interested (or even casual players) is to just be patient. Square is pretty good at fixing shit like this but it’ll definitely be a bit annoying for a while. Even though FFXIV is incredibly popular, not every single player plays at the exact same time.

It’s easy to forget that fact when you’re really itching to play or try out one of the most popular MMOs on the market. So as someone who’s planning on jumping back in sometime soon, I can just say that being patient with the game is really important right now. Take some time and play other games while you wait, trust me, this game is definitely not going anywhere.

While you wait though, take a moment to think of what you want your character to look like when you get to create them. Consider a Lalafell, you’ll have a grand old time, trust me.

READ MORE: Release Date, Prices of the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy I, II, and III Announced