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The story
In a thread titled “Is FF14 actually popular?” on the Hardware/Industry (Geha) board, users debated the relative momentum of Final Fantasy XIV, Dragon Quest X (DQ10), and NGS (part of the PSO2 series). Responding to the original poster’s question, commenters piled on data point after data point — Google Trends graphs, the quarterly sales and profit figures Square Enix discloses for its MMO division, and Switch eShop download rankings. One post noted that FF14 hit #4 on the eShop right after its new expansion dropped, while DQ10’s new version didn’t even crack the rankings — and opinions split hard over which metric should actually count.
What people said
http://imgur.com/rLpG7a6.jpeg
FF14
http://imgur.com/3dwU6oS.jpeg
http://imgur.com/D7TEoLF.png
NGS
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRQcfPNbYAEt11S.jpg
http://dengekionline.com/article/202609/85179
Google Trends
http://imgur.com/cRDemUT.jpg
Whoa.
Feels like it's gotten even bigger since the Switch 2 launched.
PSO2's decline is brutal.
It used to be big enough to hold events at Tokyo Big Sight.
Everyone's being shady, that's why the whole discussion feels murky.
Even if the user counts were identical,
DQ is aimed at kids, so they probably wouldn't turn up to events anyway.
Poking at blind spots like that is exactly what a con artist does.
Makes me wonder if the fanboys even know the trick every time and defend it anyway.
93,000
I'm not saying don't hype your own game, but if you're ripping off TERA — made by the same ex-NCsoft crew as Shift Up — at least call it 'taking inspiration.'
Show that kind of humility and I'd go easier on you.
wwwwwww (lol)
Wait, DQ is for kids?
Can't back you up on vague stuff like that — actually reply with a proper >> reference to what you mean.
How old are you, five? lol
Also, I've been to offline events for PSO2 and FF14 held around the same time,
and PSO2 had way more young otaku in the crowd.
There are actually quite a lot of female players too
Q1: Sales ¥12.5B, Profit ¥6.6B → DQ10 expansion launched the previous March
Q2: Sales ¥19.9B, Profit ¥6.5B → FF14 expansion
Q3: Sales ¥11.6B, Profit ¥4.2B
Q4: Sales ¥11.5B, Profit ¥4.6B → DQ10 update
FY2026 MMO Division
Q1: Sales ¥9.6B, Profit ¥3.6B
Q2: Sales ¥10.3B, Profit ¥4.2B → DQ10 and FF11 performing well (per official statement)
Q3: Sales ¥10.5B, Profit ¥4.1B
Q4: Sales ¥10.6B, Profit ¥3.2B
FY2027 MMO Division
Q1: Sales ¥12.7B, Profit ¥3.6B → DQ10 expansion, FF14 expansion dev costs booked early (an unheard-of move that ate into DQ10's reported sales and profit)
Q2: 11/11
Lol, this just proves how pathetic DQ10's profit is if it can get eaten up that easily.
Sales only explode whenever an FF14 expansion drops… 😨
Because in Japan it keeps losing to DQ10 across every ranking…
DQ10's losing in Japan too lol
DQ10
http://imgur.com/rLpG7a6.jpeg
FF14
http://imgur.com/3dwU6oS.jpeg
http://imgur.com/D7TEoLF.png
NGS
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRQcfPNbYAEt11S.jpg
http://dengekionline.com/article/202609/85179
Google Trends
http://imgur.com/cRDemUT.jpg
eShop August download ranking: #4
DQ10 Ver.8 released June 25, 2026
eShop June download ranking: didn't even crack the top 20
What are we gonna do about this
Yeah, it was even trending on X that DQ10 players were jumping ship to FF14.
Can't really be helped at this point.
14 only did well at launch and has already fallen off the chart.
Lol, it's on sale and still only #31.
Well, of course — FF14's new expansion hasn't even launched yet lol
PS Store purchases made through an external site don't get counted in those sales figures, so the ranking is pretty meaningless 🤗
Exactly this lol
19 Anonymous ("Totally Not Desperate" — the default poster name on this board) 2026/11/02 (Mon) 10:04:27.59 ID:GEHq9SlR0
Ah… (yeah, I see what's going on)
21 Anonymous ("Totally Not Desperate") 2026/11/02 (Mon) 10:16:51.42 ID:OO52zJrC0
Re: #19
Dragon Quest Walk started its own web store with direct payments, so rankings like that aren't much of a reference anymore.
It just got a Switch 2 update.
No budget for it lol
The graphics are trash, like a PS2 remaster lol
Background and key points of this debate
In Square Enix’s earnings reports, FF14 and DQ10 aren’t broken out individually — only combined sales and profit figures for the “MMO division” are disclosed. The quarterly numbers posted in the thread are likewise a combined total for both titles, not official data showing how much either game earns on its own. That’s why thread users reached for indirect proxies instead — Switch eShop download rankings, Google Trends, and photos from offline events — to argue over which game has more momentum. However, as pointed out within the thread itself, eShop and PlayStation Store rankings don’t reflect purchases made through DQ10’s external web store, a real blind spot in those figures. On top of that, rankings swing heavily depending on expansion release timing and whether a sale is running, so judging “popularity” from a single ranking screenshot is premature.
※This article is a summary excerpted from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “Is FF14 actually popular?“
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