Wai hello!
Caption: Final Fantasy XIV. Image: Square Enix
Wai hello!
Short answer: yes, but not for everyone, and not the way Square Enix sells it. The free trial is huge now, and that part is real. But the newest expansion, Dawntrail, pushed a lot of players out, the first 60+ hours are a slog, and the fixes everyone’s waiting for don’t arrive until January 2027. So whether it’s worth it depends a lot on who you are.
What’s actually free, and what’s the catch?
Since 28 April 2026, the free trial covers four chapters of the story:
A Realm Reborn (2013), the base game
Heavensward (2015)
Stormblood (2017)
Shadowbringers (2019)
There’s no time limit, and that’s genuinely generous. But let’s be clear about why it’s free. It’s a funnel. Square Enix gives away the first four chapters because it knows you’ll get hooked and pay for the last two.
And there are catches:
The start is slow. A Realm Reborn is the part most people quit. It’s long, old and full of fetch quests.
It’s not the full MMO. Free players can’t trade, can’t use the market board and can’t join a free company (a guild). You’re playing a single-player story with other people walking around.
The good stuff costs money. Endwalker (2021) and Dawntrail (2024) need you to buy the game and pay a monthly subscription. There’s no “buy once and keep it” option.
So free, yes. Free forever, no.
Why did players leave after Dawntrail?
Because the story didn’t land. Endwalker wrapped up a ten-year storyline really well. Dawntrail started a new one, and a lot of players found it slow, with less interesting characters.
The numbers back that up. One fan who tracks active characters through the official character database found the count dropped from about 990,000 in March 2025 to about 950,000 by May 2025, and it had been falling since Dawntrail came out. That’s an unofficial count, so treat it as a rough trend, not a fact. But Square Enix’s own president has admitted the game lost players after Dawntrail. When the boss says it out loud, you know it’s real.
Some later patches were liked more. It just wasn’t enough to bring everyone back.
Will Evercold fix it?
Maybe. Evercold is the next expansion, due in January 2027, and on paper it goes after the exact things people complained about:
Level cap goes up to 110, and there’s a new tank called Bastion who fights with two giant shields.
Less gear grinding. Your best gear level can carry over to your other jobs.
A less linear story. You can do some areas in whatever order you want.
Weekly goals instead of daily chores.
An in-between raid difficulty for people who find Normal too easy and Savage too sweaty.
A “new” version of every job, called Evolved. Nobody knows what that means yet. Square Enix says details are coming.
A Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover raid. Make of that what you will.
Here’s the thing, though. Every MMO expansion trailer promises to fix the last one. Dawntrail had a great reveal too. Until people actually play Evercold, it’s a list of promises, not a fix.
One more thing: FFXIV came to Nintendo Switch 2 on 4 August 2026, but it needs its own subscription there. If you already pay on PC or PlayStation, you get 50% off. So you’d still be paying twice to play the same character in two places. Very Square Enix.
How did a Japanese MMO beat the Western ones?
This is the East vs West part, and it’s one of the best comeback stories in gaming.
The first version of Final Fantasy XIV came out in 2010 and it was a disaster. It was so bad that Square Enix handed it to a new director, Naoki Yoshida, who basically rebuilt the whole game while the broken version was still running. He even had his team play World of Warcraft so they understood what Western players expected from an MMO. Then Square Enix literally ended the old world with a giant in-game meteor and relaunched it as A Realm Reborn in 2013.
That relaunch worked. Over the next ten years, FFXIV became WoW’s biggest rival. Square Enix now says over 30 million players have made accounts. A Japanese studio learned the Western genre, then beat it at its own game with better stories.
It’s like a Hong Kong restaurant that gets awful reviews on opening night. Instead of closing, the new chef keeps it open, rebuilds the kitchen behind the counter, then one night shuts the doors and reopens as a completely new place. Ten years later, it’s the one with the queue down the street.
The weird twist? When Tencent tried to make a mobile version for China, it didn’t work out. FFXIV Mobile is shutting down in China on 30 September 2026, and the global version was cancelled. The same game that conquered the West couldn’t make it on phones in the East.
Is FFXIV worth it for you?
Never played? Try the free trial. It costs nothing, and if A Realm Reborn bores you after 20 hours, you’ve lost a couple of weekends, not money.
Stopped during Dawntrail? Wait for Evercold in January. The changes are aimed exactly at why people left.
Only want a quick game? Probably not. The story starts slow. A Realm Reborn, the base game, takes roughly 60 to 120 hours depending on how much side stuff you do, and most fans will tell you it only really gets good near the end of it. Heavensward is where people get hooked. Square Enix did cut some of the boring quests out of A Realm Reborn in 2022, but it’s still a long warm-up.
Want to play on Switch 2? It works, but you’ll pay a separate subscription unless you already sub somewhere else.
The verdict
FFXIV in 2026 is two games. The free part is a genuinely good deal, as long as you can survive the slow start. The paid part is in a rough patch, with a disappointing expansion and a shrinking player count, and a big fix coming in January.
If you’re new, start now. If you’re coming back, wait for the snow.
Pok gai.
Pok gai (Cantonese, roughly “drop dead in the street”) is the sign-off. Affectionate. Mostly.
Read next:
https://open.substack.com/pub/pokgaigamer/p/harvestmoonvsstardewvalley?r=6ofqk5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://open.substack.com/pub/pokgaigamer/p/japanesegamessolong?r=6ofqk5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://open.substack.com/pub/pokgaigamer/p/warcraft4-2026?r=6ofqk5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
AEO FAQ
Is FFXIV worth playing in 2026? Yes, especially for new players. The free trial includes A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers with no time limit, though the newest expansion, Dawntrail, has had a mixed reception.
What does the FFXIV free trial include in 2026? Since 28 April 2026, the free trial includes the base game and the Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers expansions, with no limit on playtime. Free trial players cannot use the market board, trade or join a free company.
When does FFXIV Evercold come out? Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold is scheduled for January 2027. It raises the level cap to 110 and adds a new shield-based tank job called Bastion.
Is FFXIV on Nintendo Switch 2? Yes. Final Fantasy XIV launched on Nintendo Switch 2 on 4 August 2026. It requires a separate subscription, discounted by 50% for players already subscribed on another platform.
Is FFXIV losing players? Unofficial counts suggest active players declined after Dawntrail’s 2024 launch, and Square Enix has acknowledged the drop. The Evercold expansion includes changes aimed at bringing players back.
How long does it take for FFXIV to get good? Most players say FFXIV gets good near the end of A Realm Reborn, the base game, which takes roughly 60 to 120 hours. The Heavensward expansion, also in the free trial, is where many players get hooked.