Square Enix has never really published the number of active, paying subscribers of Final Fantasy XIV, only reporting registered users, which are over ten million as of the latest report.
Yet, today’s financial results included an interesting piece of information: paying subscribers are on the rise thanks to the release of the Stormblood expansion.
As a matter of fact both the increase in paying subscribers during the first half of the fiscal year (between July and September), and sales of the expansion itself determined a “robust” boost year-on-year in net sales and operating income for the publisher’s MMO business.
“In the area of massively multiplayer online role playing games, revenues from sales of the latest expansion disk of “FINAL FANTASY XIV” and increase of number of paying subscribers boosted by the expansion resulted in an
increase of net sale and operating income, compared to the prior fiscal year.”
This is certainly well deserved, considering that Final Fantasy XIV is arguably the best MMORPG on the market nowadays, with one of the best Final Fantasy stories of all time.
If you want to read more about the latest expansion Stormblood, you can check out our review. I’ll spoil it a bit, and say that it’s rather enthusiastic.