Final Fantasy 14 is getting more worlds to ease congestion over the next 18 months

Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 14 is expanding its North American and European data centres and servers later this year.

Earlier today on January 14, Final Fantasy 14 game director Naoki Yoshida published another extensive blog post, this time delving into detail on the current developments behind the scenes at Square Enix. Chiefly, Yoshida announced that the North American data centre would be expanded as soon as August 2022, seeing four new worlds added to the server, and will then see another upgrade with four new worlds in Summer 2023.

Slightly before that though, the European data centre for Final Fantasy 14 is going to see a similar expansion. In July, the data centre will see exactly the same growth as its North American counterpart, receiving four new worlds, and will later see eight new worlds under an entirely brand new data centre next summer.

This is huge news for struggling Final Fantasy 14 players in North America and Europe. Over the past few months, players around the world have been facing extensive queue times just to log into the MMO, which game director Yoshida has apologized for endlessly. Now though, salvation appears to finally be in sight, with these massive new upgrades to both struggling data centres.

Additionally, Yoshida announced today that Final Fantasy 14 would go back on digital storefronts on January 25. Last month in December, shortly after the Endwalker expansion launched, digital sales for Final Fantasy 14 were suspended by Square Enix, in an effort to better manage the huge influx of daily players. It's a relief that Square Enix appears to have a handle on the situation, with digital sales resuming for new players later this month.

Finally, Yoshida announced that the proposed Data Centre Travel System is going ahead in update 6.1 in the coming months. This feature, which will allow players to visit other worlds within the same data centre, was postponed last year with the congestion following Endwalker's launch, but it's not back on and set to go. Right now, we don't have a release date for patch 6.1, but it's nice to know that we'll see this new feature alongside the regular story and quest content.

Check out our full Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker review to see what we made of Square Enix's latest expansion.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.