For years, most players would have answered that question without a second thought and would have told you right away “Nope, World of Warcraft is the true king of MMORPGs”. Every knowledgeable gamer would have simply agreed and no one would have had to pause or go into any kind of deep consideration to offer their answer. Such was the dominance of World of Warcraft that its status as king seemed almost invincible. Yet time has passed, things have happened and that invincibility is not what it used to be. Is it fair to say, then, that WoW is not sitting on the throne anymore and that Final Fantasy XIV Online has risen as new king?
The first thing that seems to point in that direction is the fact that a lot of new Final Fantasy XIV Online players are openly admitting to having jumped ship and of being “World of Warcraft refugees”. You have but to log into Final Fantasy at busy hours to quickly realize that the amount of new players is astounding (they are easy to spot, there is a seedling icon next to their name). And it doesn’t matter if most of them are from WoW (or from any other game - I’m a DDO refugee myself) or straight-up new players, it’s pretty simple, they are everywhere! If that is any indication of how good FFXIV is doing at this point in time, I’d say the game is doing really well.
As per the saying, numbers don’t lie. Well, if that’s the case, what do the numbers say? If you type “number of players in mmorpg” in your search engine and look quickly at the results, you might be led to believe that WoW is still the mmorpg that’s wearing the crown. Total players: 32,95 million for Final Fantasy XIV Online and an astonishing 116,83 million for World of Warcraft. But if you delve just a little bit more, you find numbers that give a whole different picture. Active players: 1,11 million for World of Warcraft and 2,82 million for Final Fantasy XIV Online. Boom! Looks like the scepter has passed to a new sovereign.
All in all, I understand that the object of the article might be a little vain, if only because it doesn't really matter who’s king and who’s not. Players will most assuredly play an mmorpg because it fits their playstyle or because they like the theme or the story, way before going for a game that’s trendy or that’s cool (at least I sure hope they do!) In any case, the number’s game ain’t everything and any game can be considered royalty if it brings joy and satisfaction to those playing (ain’t that cheesy?). Let’s just take the time to tip our hat to Final Fantasy XIV Online for doing so well and for being home to a lot of us fellow mmorpg players. Some day (maybe even in the near future), another game will be released that will be home for the majority of us. Until then, long live the king!
