The much-anticipated PC version of Final Fantasy XVI is finally out, nearly 15 months after it was first released on PS5. The PC version launches on Tuesday and is available on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
So far, the response has been pretty lukewarm, even compared to the modest success that its predecessor, Final Fantasy XV, achieved upon launch – at least from a Steam perspective.
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In its first few hours of release, Final Fantasy XVI peaked at 16,947 concurrent players on Steam (via SteamDB), which is quite low for such a high-profile game. The number started out even lower, grew over the course of a few hours, and then leveled off. It could grow today and over the weekend, but with such a slow start there’s only so much we can expect.
Compared to Final Fantasy XV, the Windows version of the game (as Square Enix calls it) had a higher number of concurrent players on Steam at 29,498 when it was released in March 2018. Getting under 30,000 isn’t an achievement in and of itself, but it is an achievement that’s nearly double that of Final Fantasy XVI.
Both games are released in roughly the same number of countries, but Final Fantasy XV does have a slight advantage in this regard. Of course, it is worth noting that “Final Fantasy 16” can also be purchased through the Epic Games Store, so some players will not appear in Steam statistics.
Final Fantasy XV was released on PC before the Epic Games Store launched, so the audience wasn’t as fragmented. Still, it’s almost ominous when looking at Steam’s global top-selling games, a list that includes 100 games but not Final Fantasy XVI.
This is sure to disappoint publisher Square Enix, and doesn’t bode well for Final Fantasy 7 Reborn’s eventual release. The company recently revealed that it intends to give up platform exclusivity and focus on releasing its games on as many platforms as possible. In fact, Final Fantasy 16’s PS5 sales are thought to have been lower than expected, so the PC version won’t make a splash anyway.
Judging from user reviews, at least players seem to be happy with the port, although perhaps the audience isn’t big enough to embrace the weird mods that the game’s producers warn against.
