Final Fantasy XIV

We rate Final Fantasy XIV A tier (7.5 out of 10). It is 9/10 in PvE and 9/10 in solo play but only 4/10 in PvP and 6/10 in combat. The sharpest thing we think: this is the best MMORPG to play alone and the best to raid in, and one of the weaker ones to simply press buttons in, since every fight still runs on a slow global cooldown. Its Steam version alone peaked at 36,882 players in May 2026 (Steam Charts, read Nov 12, 2026), and Square Enix counted more than 35 million registered accounts on Oct 31, 2026. TheLazyPeon put it in B tier in his MMORPG Tier List 2026, one below ours. We think that sells it short: nothing else gives away four full stories for free.

We think Evercold arrives on Feb 23, 2027 with no second delay, and that its launch month does not beat the game's Steam record of 95,102 players at once.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Mar 2027.

7:22 What is live on Nov 12, 2026: Patch 7.58, out Nov 10, is the last stretch of the Dawntrail expansion. The next expansion, Evercold, is dated Feb 23, 2027, with early access on Feb 19. Square Enix first announced it for January 2027 and moved it at the Tokyo Fan Festival. The game runs on PlayStation 5 and 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Windows, Mac and Steam, the Starter Edition costs $19.99 and the subscription starts at $12.99 for 30 days. It is a story-first, tab-target theme park MMO in which one character can level every job.

Scores

Pros and cons

Pros

• The free trial has no time limit and covers the base game plus Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers, up to level 80.
• One character can play every job, so a new role never means a new character.
• Savage and Ultimate raids are built as eight-person puzzles with no boss mod add-ons needed.
• Weekly raid upkeep takes about an hour if you are efficient, Preach Gaming says (at 1:47 of his Savage video), so the game respects a small schedule.
• Since Patch 7.58, Duty Finder and Party Finder in North America and Europe match across a whole region instead of one data center.
• Nothing in the Online Store adds combat power.

Cons

• The main story is mandatory. Raids, jobs and most systems sit behind hundreds of hours of quests, or behind a paid skip.
• Combat opens with one button on a slow global cooldown, and stays slow for dozens of levels.
• PvP has no open world, no sieges, and is closed to free trial accounts.
• You pay three times: the box, the expansion and the subscription, with skips as a fourth.
• Dawntrail's story was poorly received by creators who love the game, and it sits between new players and Evercold.
• Free trial accounts cannot trade, use the market board, join a Free Company or hold more than 300,000 gil.

PvP: 4/10

PvP here is a set of instanced modes: Crystalline Conflict (small teams, with ranked seasons), Frontline (three teams) and Rival Wings. There is no open world PvP, no territory and no sieges. That is by design: nothing in these modes touches the rest of the game.

What exists is maintained. Patch 7.58 on Nov 10, 2026 started Crystalline Conflict Season 22 and let ranked matches draw from every World in a region. Evercold promises a hands-on PvP tutorial in its 8.x patches.

We stop at 4 because the free trial page says "PvP is currently unavailable for Free Trial players", and a mode the maker walls off from its largest intake of new players is not a pillar. A world PvP zone or an objective mode with lasting stakes would raise it.

PvE: 9/10

19:22 This is the score the game is built around. In Preach Gaming's 2026 video on his first full Savage clear, made after years of World of Warcraft raiding, he says what each player must do changes on every pull and that all eight have to get it right. Warcraft, he says, is like a rugby game and Final Fantasy XIV is like synchronized swimming.

The ladder is long: normal raids, Extreme trials, Savage, Ultimate, plus large alliance raids. Evercold adds a fifth rung, Fierce, between Normal and Savage, a new Ultimate and a duty that chains five dungeon bosses.

It is not a 10 because we think the same design is its limit. A fight rehearsed like a dance leaves little room for one player to improvise or to carry a weaker friend.

Solo play: 9/10

No MMORPG gives one player more for nothing. Since Apr 28, 2026 the free trial runs through Shadowbringers (Patch 5.58) to level 80 with unlimited playtime, and story dungeons can be cleared with computer-controlled party members through Duty Support. The newest job, Beastmaster, added in Patch 7.56 on Sep 8, 2026, is a limited job built for solo play.

The point we hold back is for the newest story. Dawntrail stands between the older expansions and Evercold, and even the game's fans on video did not love it. Evercold says it will let players pick the order of some story areas, which we think is an admission that the straight line got too long.

Combat: 6/10

11:17 The kit is deep at level 100, with off-cooldown weaving and tricks like slide casting. The feel is the problem. In the same video, Preach says the gameplay "is not as tight as it is in WoW" and explains that the server decides whether you were hit before the effect finishes on your screen, so you can look safe and still be caught.

We rate it 6, not 5, because the animations and job identity are strong once a job is complete, and not 7 because new players spend their first dozens of hours with a handful of buttons. Evercold's "Evolved Mode", a second version of each job that Square Enix says will show off its identity, is the first real chance in years for this score to move.

Fair pricing: 8/10

0:24 Prices on Square Enix's own product page on Nov 12, 2026: Starter Edition $19.99, Complete Edition $59.99, Dawntrail alone $39.99. The subscription is $12.99 for 30 days on the Entry tier, or $14.99 on Standard, falling to $12.99 per 30 days if you buy 180 days. Evercold is on pre-order on Steam and needs the base game and a subscription.

No item in the Online Store adds combat power. It does sell convenience: Zepla, in a mid-2026 video, points out that a Dawntrail story skip grants no levels, so a returning player in a hurry pays for a level skip "on top of your sub fee, on top of the expansion fee, and on top of the story skip." By our rule convenience without power is a 7. We add 1 for the free trial, the most generous in the genre.

Population: 9/10

The highest measured figure of 2026 is 36,882 players at once on Steam in May, the month after Patch 7.5. That scores 8. Steam is one storefront beside Square Enix's own Windows and Mac launchers and three console families, so we add 1.

The trend is the pre-expansion slide: the monthly peak fell to 24,681 in October 2026 and the average to about 15,000. The number cannot see anyone off Steam, Square Enix publishes no concurrent count, and its 35 million is registered accounts, not people playing now.

What creators say

17:30 TheLazyPeon, in his MMORPG Tier List 2026, says "it's not really for me", praises "the business model and the end game" raiding, and adds that he would "rather play WoW". He files it under positive, his B tier. We agree with both things he praises and rate the game one tier higher because of them.

30:43 In his Jul 5, 2026 video on the state of MMOs he says the game has "been in a bit of a rough spot after" Dawntrail and that the community thinks it "cannot afford another underwhelming expansion." We agree: our 9 for solo play rests on the older stories.

1:50 Zepla, one of the game's best known creators, says she did not care for Dawntrail but still does not tell everyone to skip it, and that it picks up later. We side with her on patience: her case is for being caught up when Evercold lands, not for Dawntrail itself.

34:30 Preach Gaming splits it cleanly: for netcode and responsiveness "WoW is the king", and for problem solving Final Fantasy XIV "is superior". That is our Combat 6 and PvE 9 in one breath. The creators do not disagree on facts: TheLazyPeon weighs his taste against the game, Preach weighs the raids for it.

Who should play it, and who should not

Play it if you want a long story you can finish alone, if you like raids as rehearsed teamwork, or if you want to try a big MMO for months without paying. Skip it if PvP is why you log in, or if slow early combat will lose you.

For faster combat and looser raids, World of Warcraft is the nearest rival and the one both raiders above compare it to. Guild Wars 2 gives a similar solo-friendly world with no subscription. For PvP with stakes, Aion 2 does what this game chooses not to.

Sources

• Steam Charts: Final Fantasy XIV Online, read Nov 12, 2026
• Square Enix press release, Oct 31, 2026
• Square Enix press release, Apr 24, 2026
• Square Enix press release, Apr 28, 2026
• Patch 7.58 Notes, The Lodestone
• Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold, official site
• Final Fantasy XIV product and subscription prices, read Nov 12, 2026
• Final Fantasy XIV Free Trial, read Nov 12, 2026
• Final Fantasy XIV Online Store
• Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold on Steam, read Nov 12, 2026
• Siliconera on Patch 7.56, Sep 8, 2026
• TheLazyPeon: MMORPG Tier List 2026
• TheLazyPeon: The Absolute State Of MMOs In 2026
• Preach Gaming: My FIRST FF Savage Raid
• Zepla HQ: Stop Waiting for Evercold