Final Fantasy 14 Servers Experience Major Issues

Final Fantasy XIV North American Servers Suffer Major Outage: Power Issue, Not DDoS

Final Fantasy XIV players in North America experienced a significant server outage on January 5th, affecting all four data centers. Initial reports and player accounts suggest the cause was a localized power outage in Sacramento, likely resulting from a blown transformer, rather than a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Service was restored within an hour.

This incident follows a year of persistent DDoS attacks against Final Fantasy XIV servers in 2024. These attacks, which overwhelmed servers with false information packets, caused high latency and disconnections. While Square Enix implemented mitigation strategies, completely preventing DDoS attacks remains a challenge. Players have sometimes used VPNs to improve their connection during these attacks.

However, this recent outage differed. Reddit user accounts from the r/ffxiv subreddit describe a loud explosion or popping sound heard in Sacramento around the time of the outage, consistent with a power transformer failure. This aligns with the timing of the server disruption and subsequent restoration. Square Enix acknowledged the issue on the Lodestone and confirmed an ongoing investigation.

Localized Outage Impacts North America Only

The Europe, Japan, and Oceanic data centers remained unaffected, further supporting the theory of a localized power problem. Restoration proceeded gradually, with Aether, Crystal, and Primal Data Centers returning online before Dynamis.

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