Currently, there’s a big pipeline ofWorld of Warcraftplayers moving over toFinal Fantasy 14, a competing MMORPG that’s been around since 2013. Its subtitle,A Realm Reborn, is fitting in that it replaced a failed version ofFinal Fantasy 14that launched in 2010 to negative feedback. More recently, its surge in popularity has even led to a meme, but there are correlating reasons as to whyFinal Fantasy 14is gaining popularity asWorld of Warcraftdrops.
Twitch streamerAsmongold has had some of the most scathing criticism forWorld of Warcraft, spearheading the conversations of what Blizzard could be doing better to appease its players. Much of this criticism was contained in TwitLonger before the streamer moved over toFinal Fantasy 14, where he said he has been blown away. Despite being the flagship MMORPG on the market,World of Warcraftis slowly losing its crown, and it’s partially due to Asmongold’s heavy-handed opinions that seem to speak for a large portion of the community.
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Asmongold’s Criticism of World of Warcraft
In short, Asmongold is criticizing Blizzard more than he is criticizing its game. He believes that Blizzard dropped the ball on the most recent update,Shadowlands, which took several months before a patch was released, leaving aneight-month gap without any newWorld of Warcraftcontent. Unfortunately, it didn’t resolve several issues that players noted either.
According to Asmongold, Blizzard has largely moved away from creating a game to please fans and more toward producing a game that will earn money, which can be seen with the “egregious” number of microtransactions. On top of that, Blizzard is failing to respond to fan complaints, and Asmongold believes this highlights where the company’s priorities are at and are the real reason for players moving from the reigning MMORPG toFinal Fantasy 14.
However, according to an alleged Blizzard employee on 4chan, the company blames Asmongold for this move, as well as inciting “malicious cyberwarfare.” It’s unclear if this post is really from a Blizzard dev, but it does appear that Asmongold has had some correlation with thespike in players onFF14recently.
Asmongold’s Move to Final Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy 14has quickly become Asmongold’s regular title for streaming. After his community begged him to dip his toes into the Square Enix MMORPG, he was blown away with his first session on July 3. Perhaps it’s just an odd coincidence, but Google searches for “Final Fantasy 14” saw a large increase on the same day, meaning it could correlate with the start of Asmongold’sTwitchstream.
However, months prior to Asmongold’s participation inFF14, Square’s online game became the most-played MMORPG. So while the streamer may not be leading the charge of the move fromWoWtoFF14, per se, his fanbase is large, so it’s not unimaginable how his influence over millions of viewers could lead to a heightened online interest in the game. He even trended on Twitter for a bit afterhe streamedFinal Fantasy 14for the first time.
But the inclination doesn’t end there. Though there was a dip just beforeAsmongold’s stream on July 3, Google shows that the phrase “Final Fantasy 14” is continuing to see an exponential upward climb in popularity on the Internet. Seeing as an alleged Blizzard employee blames Asmongold for this, it’s possible that the streamer has had a massive influence on theWorld of Warcraftand MMORPG community.
Final Fantasy 14is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.
