Final Fantasy 14 Servers Experience Major Issues

Final Fantasy XIV North American Servers Suffer Major Outage, Likely Due to Power Failure

Final Fantasy XIV experienced a significant server outage affecting all four North American data centers on January 5th, shortly after 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Initial reports and player accounts suggest the cause was a local power outage in Sacramento, California, potentially resulting from a blown transformer. Service was restored within an hour.

This incident differs from the numerous distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that plagued the game throughout 2024. DDoS attacks, which flood servers with false information, cause high latency and disconnections. While Square Enix employs mitigation strategies, completely preventing DDoS attacks remains a challenge. Players have previously used VPNs as a workaround to improve connectivity during these events.

Evidence supporting the power outage theory comes from player reports on the r/ffxiv subreddit. Users described hearing a loud explosion or popping sound in Sacramento, consistent with a blown transformer, shortly before the outage. The Europe, Japan, and Oceanic data centers remained unaffected, further supporting the localized nature of the problem.

Square Enix acknowledged the issue on the Lodestone and confirmed an ongoing investigation. While the Aether, Crystal, and Primal data centers have since returned to service, the Dynamis Data Center remained offline at the time of this writing.

The outage adds another challenge to Final Fantasy XIV's ambitious plans for 2025, including the anticipated launch of a mobile version. The long-term effects of these recurring server problems remain to be seen.