Final Fantasy 14 definitely pulled its own No Man’s Sky. When the game first launched, it left little to be desired. From lackluster gameplay to a grind that didn’t feel like it had purpose, the launch was anything but a successful drop. Instead of quitting, however, Square Enix doubled down and ended up crafting something truly beautiful. With the hype surrounding Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, the community has grown exponentially; so much so, that Square Enix even ran out of digital copies for the game.
With the MMORPG at the center of its niche, it even comes with its own meme of people trying to get newcomers in with the free trial, one Redditor happened to notice that the online store for Square Enix showed no stock available for the game, even in a digital format:
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As the original poster notated, server congestion is absolutely temporary, but it is wild to see when reflecting back on the launch era of that game. When looking at the store presently, everything seems to be restored back to usual, with the waitlist option detailed above no longer necessary.
The overflow impacted more than digital codes. Long queue times, inaccessible character creator, and more issues tied to the online status of the game were all impacted. With the MMORPG having recently smashed through its previous record for concurrent players, it’s no wonder that the servers were overloaded and that demand for this game was — and is — high. Pair that with Asmongold, a renowned World of Warcraft streamer, recently making the public jump to the Final Fantasy MMORPG, and Square Enix had a lot of excitement on the studio team’s hands.
At this point and time, it looks like everything is back up and running. Which is good, because now you have no excuse not to play, especially so with it now on PlayStation 5.
Source: Game Informer Final Fantasy 14's Massive Surge In Players Resulted In A Shortage Of Even Digital Copies Of The Game