Final Fantasy 14 Servers Experience Major Issues

Summary

• A power outage, not a DDoS attack, was the likely cause of Final Fantasy XIV's recent North American server disruption.
• All four North American data centers experienced brief disconnections.
• Square Enix is investigating the incident.

On January 5th, all four North American Final Fantasy XIV data centers went offline shortly after 8:00 PM Eastern, causing a significant server outage. Social media reports from players suggest a power outage in Sacramento, potentially due to a blown transformer, was responsible. Service was restored within an hour of the initial reports.

This isn't the first time Final Fantasy XIV has faced major server issues. Throughout 2024, the game was repeatedly targeted by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, overwhelming servers with false information and causing high latency and disconnections. While Square Enix has implemented mitigation strategies, DDoS attacks remain difficult to completely prevent. Players have sometimes used VPNs as a workaround to improve connectivity.

However, this recent outage differed. Reddit users on r/ffxiv reported hearing a loud explosion or popping sound in Sacramento, where the North American data centers are located. This, along with other corroborating accounts, points to a blown power transformer as the likely cause of the power outage affecting the servers. The outage began around 8:00 PM Eastern and resolved approximately an hour later. Square Enix acknowledged the issue on the Lodestone and announced an ongoing investigation.

Final Fantasy XIV's North American Data Centers Recover From Major Outage

The Europe, Japan, and Oceanic data centers remained unaffected, further supporting the theory of a localized outage. At the time of writing, North American data centers were gradually returning to service, beginning with Aether, Crystal, and Primal. The Dynamis data center, the newest addition, remained offline.

Despite ambitious plans for 2025, including the launch of Final Fantasy XIV Mobile, these server problems represent another challenge for the game. The long-term impact of these recurring server issues remains to be seen.