Final Fantasy XIV Online is back inside Steam's top 100 most-played games, days after Square Enix folded Shadowbringers into the MMO's free trial.
On Steam's public most-played chart, Final Fantasy XIV ranked No. 95 on Thursday evening, up from No. 141 in the previous weekly comparison. The chart showed 24,466 players online at that point, while the latest completed weekly peak stood at 35,268 players.
That is not huge by the standards of Steam's biggest free-to-play fixtures, but it is a meaningful move for a long-running subscription MMO. Final Fantasy XIV has been around on Steam since 2014, and a 46-place climb back into the top 100 suggests the new entry point is getting attention outside the game's usual patch-week audience.
Shadowbringers makes the free trial much bigger
Square Enix announced on the Lodestone that Final Fantasy XIV's free trial now includes Shadowbringers as of April 28, alongside the release of Patch 7.5. The change also applies to existing owners who had already registered A Realm Reborn to their accounts, though Square Enix said account status updates may not appear immediately on the Mog Station.
The Steam store page now describes the free trial as including A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers. That matters for new players because Shadowbringers is not a small add-on. It adds a full expansion's worth of story, areas and jobs to the no-subscription part of the game, extending the route from the base MMO through one of its best-known chapters.
Patch 7.5 gives current players their own reason to return. In its Steam announcement for the update, Square Enix said Trail to the Heavens adds the Unmaking trial, Echoes of Vana'diel content, a new Crystalline Conflict arena and changes covering furnishing limits, dyes, the armoire, outfit glamours and group pose.
A bigger on-ramp arrives during a busy year for the MMO
The Steam climb is best read as a player-activity signal around two changes arriving together: a larger free trial for newcomers and Patch 7.5 for existing subscribers. It does not say anything about sales, but it does show Final Fantasy XIV moving up Steam's live most-played list at a moment when Square Enix has made the game easier to sample.
It also lands during a broader expansion year for the MMO. Final Fantasy XIV is still tied most closely to PC and PlayStation, but Square Enix is also bringing it to Nintendo's new hardware, with Gamers Now previously covering the MMO's planned Switch 2 release in August.
For Steam players, the immediate change is simpler: the free trial now reaches through Shadowbringers, and Final Fantasy XIV is visible again in the platform's top 100 at the same time.