A Look At The Active ISK Delta In December 2024

With a new year comes a look back at the past one. With the first full month after the Revenant expansion's launch in the books, the time has come to not only look at the Active ISK Delta in December, but for the entire year of 2024 as well.

From the December 2024 Monthly Economic Report

The Active ISK Delta is the net effect on the New Eden monetary supply of players leaving and returning to the game. The Active ISK Delta also includes any reductions due to any and all GM actions. In December, 64.3 trillion ISK left the economy from the movement of players into and out of the game. The change made the Active ISK Delta the biggest ISK sink in the New Eden economy for the second month in a row, dwarfing the 25.9 trillion ISK removed from the economy through transaction taxes.

Data from the last 24 MERs

Now, 64.3 trillion ISK seems like a rather large about of ISK. But the amount only represented a decrease of 2.6% of the total amount of money in the economy at the beginning of the month. Even with that amount leaving with departing players, the money supply still managed to grow 10.4 trillion ISK. I think for those worried about inflation, and the dev team's possible reaction to high inflation, the money supply growing only 0.4% is good news.

Data from 8 years of MERs

Normally I perform a year-over-year comparison. The December 2024 Active ISK Delta showed a 6.5% decline in ISK leaving the game compared to December 2023. But perhaps more importantly a new trend was established for the month of December. Looking back at the first 3 years of the Alpha/Omega era, the Active ISK Delta was positive, indicating players returning to the game. The pattern broke in 2020. No, I am not going to blame the debut of the Winter Nexus event that year. But for the three Decembers of the Second Expansion Era which began with the Uprising expansion, the Active ISK Delta was within plus or minus 5% of 66 trillion ISK. I will point to the reintroduction of yearly expansions in November as a major influence on that statistic, however.

Data going back 7 years

Looking at the entire quarter I think may show the popularity of the Havoc expansion of 2023 versus 2024's Revenant expansion. Since 2022 the fourth quarter encompasses the run-up to an expansion, the month the expansion launches, and then the first month of play afterwards. In the final quarter of 2023, player movement in and out of the game was a net ISK faucet, with an Active ISK Delta of 32.7 trillion ISK. In 2024, the faucet became a sink with players removing 88.4 trillion ISK from the New Eden economy on their way out the door.

The raw numbers are misleading

Of course we have to look at the full year numbers, and 2024 set a record with 509.3 trillion ISK removed from the economy due to players leaving the game. But I thought the number was very skewed, especially after discovering that the amount of ISK in the New Eden economy grew by 139.6% from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2024. So I decided to look at the numbers slightly differently.

Percentage of ISK departing game by year

And hey, look at that. When taking into account the growth of the money supply, 2024 doesn't look so bad after all. If fact, the 24.2% of the money supply that left the New Eden economy due to players moving in and out of EVE Online is slightly lower than the yearly average of 24.5% from 2017 to 2021. Perhaps more of interest, the year with two low-sec content heavy expansions only saw 9.1% of the ISK leave with players in 2023.

Lately I find writing these Active ISK Delta posts a little boring and wonder if the effort is worth doing. Then I get to the end of the year and get to pour over the data and produce an article where I learn something from the analysis. But if I am going to continue, I need to start taking inflation more into account, don't I?

Cloud Imperium's Leadership Musical Chairs At The End Of 2024

This is a story that began on 20 December 2024. Insider Gaming, a publication which apparently has sources inside Cloud Imperium Games, came out with a story about a shake-up in corporate leadership. I decided to pass up on the story until more information came out. Well, more information came out as the story interested more inquiring minds (okay, I'm very nosy!) than mine.

Here's the guts of the story according to Insider Gaming.

At the time of writing, Insider Gaming has heard of at least three executives with a combined experience of around 25 years at Cloud Imperium Games who have had their positions terminated. It’s said that announcements of their departures will be announced in due time.

In an internal announcement to employees, Chris Roberts said, To achieve this laser focus [of meeting the release of SQ42 and Star Citizen 1.0], it is more important than ever to ensure we have high-performing and efficient teams working throughout the company. In order to achieve this, I have had to make changes to the structure of our teams from the very top of the company and downwards to ensure we have the right people in the right roles, working in person as much as possible from our most critical year yet.”

When the story came out, a small Star Citizen YouTuber, Camural, noticed that Roger Godfrey, the lead producer of Cloud Imperium's Core Technology Group, issued a post announcing he left the company the day after CIG launched the preview version of Alpha 4.0.

An update on my role at Cloud Imperium Games:https://t.co/Wm734zlKa9

— Roger Godfrey (@roger_godfrey) December 20, 2024

Given that Godfrey does not appear under an NDA to not to talk about his departure from CIG, I don't think the vague references in the Insider Gaming story referred to the long time CIG employee, so I pushed the story to the side until more information became available.

Today another Camural video popped up on my YouTube feed, this time about the departure of CIG's Chief Strategy Officer, Carl Jones. According to LinkedIn, Jones was hired in 2014, before former Crytek developers were scooped up by CIG when Crytek experienced major financial problems in 2016. While Insider Gaming noted he had been removed from the corporate About page sometime around 21 December, Jones didn't announce his departure on LinkedIn until Monday.

Carl Jones departure announcement

At this point I decided to do a little snooping around and found that Dr. Martin Franz had resigned as the corporate secretary for Cloud Imperium Games on 7 January. The move is a bit unexpected as Franz is the General Consul for Cloud Imperium. He took over the job from Ortwin Freyermuth at the beginning of June 2023 and according to his LinkedIn page was CIG's general European consul from 2017 to 2023. Submissions to UK Companies House indicate Franz was appointed the corporate secretary to replace Freyermuth in that role in December 2023.

From UK Companies House

Among the duties of a corporate secretary is ensuring that the company complies with legal requirements by filing annual returns at Companies House. These returns include financial statements, directors’ reports, and auditors’ reports. As of the writing of this post, those returns were still not posted to Companies House for 2023, which throws a wrinkle into the whole matter I was not expecting.

As of the writing of this post, Franz still serves as Cloud Imperium's top legal officer.

Looking back to the beginning of Q4 2024 I saw two other people removed from the corporate About page between 4 October and 4 December, both working out of the Los Angeles office. The first was Francesca McKibben, the vice-president of human resources in the U.S. Her departure seems normal as she left CIG in October to begin working as the Senior People & Culture Business Partner for LinkedTree in November, also in Los Angeles. One remarkable fact is McKibben had worked for over 10 years at CIG, beginning as the human resource manager from April 2014 to November 2015 who established the HR department at CIG.

The second person from the Los Angels office is a little more interesting. Eric Kieron Davis is the Chief People Officer for Cloud Imperium. According to Davis' LinkedIn page, the position oversees all people functions and studio operations. Davis joined CIG in April 2015 after working for Blizzard Entertainment for 8 years. Perhaps more importantly to this story is that while Davis was removed from the About page 1-3 months ago, his LinkedIn page still lists him as working for Cloud Imperium. Sort of like how Carl Jones didn't make any announcement of leaving the company until Monday.

If we discuss all the faces that left (or are possibly leaving) CIG, we do need to cover the one new face on the About page: Claire Buffet. With as much press as Turbulent co-founders Benoit Beausejour and Marc Beaudet have received since CIG acquired the company in 2023, I'm a little surprised Buffet hasn't received a little more attention. A 16-year veteran of Turbulent, she became a partner at the company in January 2013 and the company's vice president of strategy and creation in November 2019. Currently she is Cloud Imperium's vice president in charge of Canadian operations.

At this point a little speculation is in order. If a restructuring is truly underway, I would foresee Claire Buffet moving up from VP of Canadian Operations to VP of North American Operations, with the Montreal, Toronto, and Austin studios falling under her domain. 

What about the Los Angeles facility? I could foresee the facility closing, with Chief Marketing Officer Elliot Chin and Vice President of US Finance Brian Stich moving from Los Angeles to Toronto. Also, Stich would receive the title Vice President of North American Finance. Toronto seems a good compromise location as the two Americans could still live in the U.S. and commute into work from the Detroit suburbs if they wanted.

For now, that's all I have. But when I saw a video about the departure of a member of Cloud Imperium's C-Suite Tuesday morning, I didn't expect to write a thousand word post. Since I seem to know a lot about the subject already I'll keep an eye out for updates.

U.S. Places Tencent On List Of Chinese Military Companies

Sometimes geopolitics doesn't care if all someone wants to do is play video games. Case in point: today's news that the outgoing Biden administration has placed Tencent Holdings, the owners of WeChat, on the U.S. military's list of Chinese military companies.

After a quick search, CNBC had what I thought was the best explanation of what just happened.

The National Defence Authorization Act of 2024 says that the DoD will be prohibited from procuring goods or services directly from entities on the list in June 2026, and indirectly from June 2027.

In response to the decision, Tencent said in a statement that its inclusion on the list was “clearly a mistake.”

“We are not a military company or supplier. Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business,” the company added. CATL also called the designation “a mistake” in a response, saying it “is not engaged in any military related activities.”

Tencent has a good chance of managing to secure its exclusion from the list through U.S. courts due to the company’s business model, which primarily revolves around social networking and online gaming, said Ivan Su, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.

Perhaps not, but Tencent shares were down nearly 8% in both Hong Kong and Wall Street following the news.

So why does a blog focusing on MMORPGs care about what the outgoing U.S. administration does? Because unlike World of Warcraft and EVE Online which are published in the People's Republic of China by NetEase, our overlords in Anyang decided to partner with Tencent to publish Black Desert Online in mainland China. Back in August, I noted how swiftly Black Desert Online won approval to operate in the People's Republic once Pearl Abyss switched to Tencent as its Chinese partner: 9 days. 

Now, Pearl Abyss is in much better shape than a lot of other game companies, which are partly or wholly owned by the Chinese tech giant. Those companies include:

Riot Games: In 2011, Tencent went from being Riot's publishing partner to owner. Currently Tencent owns 100% of the League of Legends maker.

Grinding Gear Games: Back in 2018, Tencent picked up an 80% share of the maker of Path of Exile.

Epic Games: The developer of not only Fortnight but Unreal Engine became a partner of Tencent in June 2012, with the Chinese company purchasing 40% of Epic Games. Oh, and did I mention the Epic Games store?

Larian Studios: Yes, I know Baldur's Gate 3 is a single-player RPG. But with Tencent owning a 30% stake, I had to include Larian on the list.

Inclusion on the list does not impose any penalties except for not doing business with the Pentagon, but may open the door for further action if the incoming Trump administration wants to rachet up the on-going trade war between the U.S. and the People's Republic. Usually when it comes to China and video games, I watch what the Chinese bureaucracy does. Now I may have to pay closer attention to Washington D.C. as well. 

Cloud Imperium Is Late With Its 2023 Financial Information

I am sitting in my bunker in an undisclosed location waiting on Cloud Imperium Games to release financial information related to the year 2023. For all of the company's vaunted transparency, CIG does tend to hang onto financial information until any revelations become old news. I guess as long as all investors in the company have the information and CIG isn't hiding information from potential investors, no harm, no foul.

Now comes the "but". But one of the reasons for CIG to post a financial report like it has every year since the first tranche of Calder investment money arrived in 2018 is to make sure potential investors can do their due diligence before making investment plans. I would have stated "every December since 2018," but last year the company waited until 2 January 2024 to post the public financial report for 2022 on its corporate website. And this year CIG will post the information later still.

The year 2023 had a big question. Did Cloud Imperium expand too fast? According to the 2022 financial report, CIG's workforce headcount went from 860 at the end of 2022 to over 1100 at the end of 2023. As best as I can tell, the added labor costs would have added between $21 million and $26 million to CIG's 2023 budget. Add in that cash shop sales in 2023 only increased by $4 million and one has to wonder how much money CIG lost in 2023. After all, in 2022 Cloud Imperium's financial report only showed a profit of $1.3 million.

A conspiracy theorist would jump on the evidence so far and shout to the world Chris Roberts is trying to hide how badly CIG is doing by hiding the evidence from players. I'm not such a theorist, however. I will admit the theory fits Occam's razor in that, all other things being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation for a phenomenon.

I do have two facts on my side suggesting all other things are not equal. The first is CIG has still not submitted its group of companies accounts with UK Companies House. For the 2022 accounts, CIG did not file until 3 March 2024. The second is the mid-year acquisition of Turbulent for $CA 9.8 million ($USD 7.4 million) plus stocks.

While Occam's razor is a fine principle to live by, many times Hanlon's razor applies. We saw an example last year with the late submission of the 2022 accounts. Turns out, amongst a host of issues, the new auditors found an accounting mistake stretching back 5 years. And honestly, I'm not too surprised at the lateness of the 2023 reports due to the complications the Turbulent sale brought to the situation. If the auditors from PriceWaterhouseCooper are not tearing their hair out trying to explain things to CIG, I'd be surprised. After all, the possibility exists the Calders' put option for both 2025 and 2028 are causing friction and delays.

I do need to conclude with a poke at the creators who may try to excuse publishing the financial data in January as "business as normal." I actually watched a YouTube video where the commentator attempted to tell the audience this. So for my own sanity I will record the publication dates of previous financial reports on CIG's corporate website here, along with handy links to save people, including myself, time.

• Years 2012-2017 - December 20, 2018
• Year 2018 - December 20, 2019
• Year 2019 - December 23, 2020
• Year 2020 - December 22, 2021
• Year 2021 - December 30, 2022
• Year 2022 - January 2, 2024

And while I'm on a history kick, here are the dates going back to 2015 for the submission of accounts to Companies House. The dates are the dates posted to the Companies House website, so the days submitted are usually 5 working days earlier.

• Thru 31 December 2015 - 5 January 2017
• Thru 31 December 2016 - 24 October 2017
• Thru 31 December 2017 - 26 October 2018
• Thru 31 December 2018 - 10 October 2019
• Thru 31 December 2019 - 6 January 2021
• Thru 31 December 2020 - 14 October 2021
• Thru 31 December 2021 - 10 January 2023
• Thru 31 December 2022 - 11 March 2024

And since the time in the UK is now past 6pm on a Friday, I feel pretty safe in posting this article now. So from my bunker in an undisclosed location, I'll keep waiting for the financial information I need to close out 2023.

A Look At EVE Online Activity In December 2024

Another year is in the books. I think EVE Online had a so-so year. While much better than two years ago, 2024 kind of sputtered, with revenue growth coming from the new SKINR system rather than attracting more players to the game. Perhaps I'm wrong and my perceptions of the game are off since nowadays I do more planetary interaction and hauling gameplay than anything else. So let's jump into the latest available statistics and take a look.

First up is Jester's full year graph on average concurrent users. At the end of 2023 the graph showed a rise in the fourth quarter of the year up to around 23,000 ACU. Last year saw the number of accounts logged in hang around the 23,000 mark except during the summer. After a year in which Viridian did very well, the summer slump returned in 2024. And after an expansion bump, the ACU returned to around 23,000 at the end of 2024. The one noticeable difference is that in December 2023 the trend was increasing while at the end of 2024 the trend was decreasing.

Data from Dotlan Maps

Performing a month-over-month comparison, one would hope ship explosions would increase in the first full month after an expansion. The only security band in known space to see an increase was in low sec. First, the decrease in the other two bands might indicate a lack of interest in the new content in Revenant, with some players returning to low sec. Second, perhaps my disinterest in Winter Nexus isn't a minority opinion after all, especially with so many SKINR materials sprinkled throughout the event. And finally, perhaps especially true in null sec, players were taking a break before the big un-bluing of the major coalitions from each other beginning on New Year's Day.

Data from Dotlan Maps

Looking back to December 2023, the trends were increasing everywhere except for killing NPCs in high sec and other players in low security space. With two expansions in 2024 more focused on null sec than anywhere else, the dip in player-owned ship explosions in low sec was expected. But the year-over-year, as well as month-over-month drop in NPC deaths in high sec might indicate an issue or two with this year's Winter Nexus event.

Data from Dotlan Maps

Speaking of looking back in time, what about the explosions for the entire year? As one might expect, numbers of explosions were up across the board except in low sec. While the PvE changes took hold from 18 months of low sec heavy expansions, player ship deaths did drop by 5.5%. Still, the number of NPCs killed by null sec players increased by one-third in 2024 compared to 2023. The downward trends at the end of 2024 are a concern, but just looking at the year as a whole the growth looked good. Or, in other words, we had another year of, "Yeah, but..."

Cloud Imperium Games Records $116.7 Million In Cash Shop Sales For 2023

According to the player-run CCU Game Star Citizen funding dashboard, Cloud Imperium Games earned $774 million in sales through its cash shop at Roberts Space Industries from October 2012 through the end of last year. For 2024, the company recorded $116.7 million, a 0.8% decrease from 2023's total of $117.6 million.

For the month of December, sales increased to $18.7 million, or 122.3%, year-over-year compared to December 2023's total of $8.4 million. In large part, the increase is attributable to a quirk in the calendar. CIG starts its annual Intergalactic Aerospace Expo on the Friday before Black Friday. For 2024, the timing pushed 5 days of sales from November into December. The other reason was the timing of the release of Alpha 4.0. Looking back, a sale was missing in the middle of October, right before CitizenCon. Given the rush to push the release to live servers, I believe the accompanying ship sale was originally supposed to occur the week before CitizenCon in order to increase sales for that event.

The fourth quarter of 2024 saw cash shop sales reach $48.2 million. While the second largest quarterly total in company history, the amount resulted in a 6.4% YoY revenue decline compared to Q4 2023's $51.5 million. Two of CIG's biggest sales events, the IAE and CitizenCon both occur in the fourth quarter. Both events saw revenue fall year-over-year, the IAE for the first time since 2014. 

I do wonder how much announcements at CitizenCon affected CIG's financial performance during the fourth quarter. First, Squadron 42 was announced to release sometime in 2026 instead of 2025 which most people probably expected. The second was the revelation that the 1.0 version of Star Citizen will resemble EVE Online a lot more than a lot of existing players expected. While to this EVE Online player the movement of Star Citizen becoming a full-loot, hardcore PvP sandbox MMORPG was pretty clear, the presentation at CitizenCon made the company's design goals unmistakable as anything else. Finally, the announcement that Star Citizen 1.0 would not include AI crews for multi-crew ships. The player-base includes a lot of people who want to fly their ships solo. Given the 1.0 release is probably at least 5 years away, I can see a lot of primarily solo players ceasing to purchase the multi-crew ships, which tend to be the most expensive in Star Citizen.

For those who keep track of new accounts (aka "new citizens"), December's 45,937 was only 2% less than the total of 46.897 in December 2023. For the quarter, CIG attracted the creation of 138,209 new accounts, a 19.5% decrease over Q4 2023's total of 171,771. For the entire year of 2024, account generation was down 28.4%, with 484,271 accounts vs last year's number of 676,560.

The $774 million displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page is not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $872.6 million in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2022 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $774.0 million (through 31 December 2024)
• Subscriptions: $33.0 million (through 31 December 2022)
• All other sources: $65.6 million (through 31 December 2022)

In addition, the company has received a total of $63.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2022 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $935.8 million, or $931.0 million when excluding the returned funds.

Finally, I need to make a point for this last post about Cloud Imperium's cash shop revenue for 2024. I realize the subscription and all other source revenue totals are now two years out of date. The reason is CIG has, as of 1830 UTC on 1 January 2025, not released the financial report for 2023. When giving the amount of revenue collected, I only want to use original source material from Cloud Imperium and no estimates. Hopefully the report will appear on the Cloud Imperium corporate site soon so I may start the reporting for 2025 with up to date data showing the company closing in on $1 billion in revenue. Barring a catastrophe, CIG should reach that mark sometime in 2025.

Spotify's Top 20 Final Fantasy XIV Orchestrion Rolls - Spots 1-5

I love the music in Final Fantasy XIV. Over Thanksgiving I went down the rabbit hole looking for FFXIV music on Spotify to create a playlist or two. I found more FFXIV albums than I knew existed and none of them contain Dawntrail music. I also discovered that 43 songs had more than 1 million streams, with 20 of them listened to over 2 million times.

With 600 orchestrion rolls available in-game and another 118 rolls in existence through seasonal events, the online store and in bonus content, a lot of music is available to fill the 8 slots available for players to put in the orchestration lists to play in inns and housing. So I got the idea to list the most popular music in FFXIV and how to obtain the orchestrion rolls. Due to including YouTube videos, I'll divide the list into 4 posts, with 5 songs per post. I'll also list the number of times streamed as recorded on 1 December 2024.

Spots 5 down to 1:

5. Heavensward - 3,939,810

Album: Heavensward
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.4
Obtained from: The online store ($3)

The Heavensward orchestrion roll is the only one solely obtainable from the online cash store. One of the themes for the Heavensward expansion (and trailer), the roll was available in-game as a reward for completing the 2016 version of The Rising anniversary event. Seasonal event items, including orchestrion rolls, show up in the cash shop one year after their initial appearance in the game. I should add that cash shop only orchestrion rolls do exist but are usually different versions of the original game OSTs.

4. A Long Fall - 4,098,737

Album: Shadowbringers
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.0
Obtained from: random drop in the final boss chest of The Twinning.

The song from the Shadowbringers The Twinning dungeon is perhaps best known for one of Final Fantasy XIV's most famous memes. The song probably saw a resurgence on Spotify when The Primals recreated the meme with backup dancers at the Digital Fanfest in 2021.

As suggested in the music video, A Long Fall is the theme music for the dungeon The Twinning, an optional dungeon available in patch 5.0. 

3. Dragonsong - 4,151,605 

Album: Heavensward
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.3
Obtained by: Completing the MSQ quest Litany of Peace.

Labeled the main theme of the Heavensward expansion, the song is the first of two on the list featuring the vocals of Susan Calloway. I think the popularity of the song is not only due to the talents of the musicians and composer Nobuo Uematsu, but its use in telling the story as well. The music playing in the final cutscenes with Nidhogg added to the scene, making the aftermath of the fight so emotional for many players.

2. Answers - 4,696,927

Albums: Before Meteor, Endwalker

Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.2
Obtained by:  Level 60 Alchemist with Faded Copy of Thunderer, Faded Copy of Rise of the White Raven, and Faded Copy of Answers, dropped in The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 5, The Second Coil of Bahamut - Turn 4, and The Final Coil of Bahamut - Turn 4.

The song most new players run into early in their days playing Final Fantasy XIV, the orchestrion roll is labeled as the theme to A Realm Reborn. But the song made its debut in the final cutscene of the original Final Fantasy XIV as the Battle of Carteneau raged, ending the Sixth Astral Era and ushering in the Seventh Umbral Era. 

The song returned in A Realm Reborn, 21 months after the original game shut down and 5 years later in the game's lore. All players learn of the Battle of Carteneau with the full details revealed to those who complete the raid series The Coils of Bahamut.

And when the writers needed to explain the beginning of our current world in Endwalker, they returned to the powerful combination of composer Nobuo Uematsu, female vocalist Susan Calloway, and a male chorus. If any song is iconic to Final Fantasy XIV, I would reply, "Answers."

1. Shadowbringers - 6,149,482

Album: Shadowbringers
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.0
Obtained by: Completing the quest The Syrcus Trench

The main theme for Shadowbringers, the orchestrion roll is obtained by completing the first main storyline quest in the expansion. I think the song is the most popular on the list because Shadowbringers was not only the most popular expansion, but the best as well. I'm going to conclude this list by mentioning the contributors to the song.

First is composer Masayoshi Soken. Born in Mexico, Soken has served as the sound director for Final Fantasy XIV since the 1.0 days. While composing much of the music, an illness to Nobuo Uematsu resulted in Soken writing the expansion's theme. Up until Shadowbringers, Uematsu had written each expansion's theme music. He formed up and plays lead guitar for the game's in-house band, The Primals. Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Primals have three albums up on Spotify. And for those who've played Final Fantasy XIV, perhaps it comes as no surprise that his favorite bands are Rage Against The Machine and Pennywise.

Surprisingly, Shadowbringers is the only song on the list sung by the lead female vocalist, Amanda Achen. Another song from Shadowbringers, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, just missed the list while Endwalker's Flow hadn't been listened to one million times at the time I compiled the list.

The male singer, Jason Charles (J.C.) Miller has a longer history with Final Fantasy XIV as the original English voice actor for Raubahn in A Realm Reborn. He also did voice work for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Mobius Final Fantasy, and Final Fantasy VII Remake. In addition to the Shadowbringers' theme, Miller sang To The Edge, the theme for The Seat of Sacrifice and the final fight in patch 5.3. In Endwalker, Miller sang Close in the Distance, the Ultima Thule zone music and background music to a memorable walk by the Warrior of Light on their way to the final confrontation in Endwalker.

And hungrychad. - I want to finish with a shout-out to hungrychad, who from my searching had done more for FFXIV karaoke than anyone else, at least in the English-speaking world. I really like their videos and would encourage people to make the channel the first place to look for FFXIV music videos.

Spotify's Top 20 Final Fantasy XIV Orchestrion Rolls - Spots 6-10

I love the music in Final Fantasy XIV. Over Thanksgiving I went down the rabbit hole looking for FFXIV music on Spotify to create a playlist or two. I found more FFXIV albums than I knew existed and none of them contain Dawntrail music. I also discovered that 43 songs had more than 1 million streams, with 20 of them listened to over 2 million times.

With 600 orchestrion rolls available in-game and another 118 rolls in existence through seasonal events, the online store and in bonus content, a lot of music is available to fill the 8 slots available for players to put in the orchestration lists to play in inns and housing. So I got the idea to list the most popular music in FFXIV and how to obtain the orchestrion rolls. Due to including YouTube videos, I'll divide the list into 4 posts, with 5 songs per post. I'll also list the number of times streamed as recorded on 1 December 2024.

Spots 10 down to 6:

10. Invincible ("Who Brings Shadow") - 2,878,415

Album: Shadowbringers
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.1
Obtained from: Crafted by Level 80 Alchemist with Faded Copy of Invincible, dropped in The Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy.

Known by some as the song with "Riding Home", the scroll was a bit more complicated to find than most. The theme for phase 2 of the boss fight in The Dying Grasp, the song is known as "Who Brings Shadow" on both Spotify and YouTube. The song is also known as Hades Theme to even complicate things further. But when the subject is Emet-Selch, is anything simple? And when engaged in the final fight, the song fits the epicness of the fight as well.

9. Locus - 2,972,193

Album: Heavensward
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.4
Obtained from: Completing the quest Of Endings and Beginnings.

The highest ranked of the Alexander raid scrolls on the list, Locus is listed in the minor boss theme category. One of four orchestrion scrolls awarded for completing Of Endings and Beginnings, players may recognize the song for the "falling back" lyrics. I do wonder if the Alexander raid music received a resurgence in popularity due to the presence of Alexandria in Dawntrail. A different Alexandria I'm told, but who ultimately knows?

8. Oblivion - 3,147,859

Album: Before the Fall
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.4
Obtained from: Crafted by Level 50 Alchemist with Faded Copy of Oblivion, dropped in The Akh Afah Amphitheatre (Extreme).

Oblivion is the most popular song off the Before the Fall album on Spotify. Also known as Shiva's Theme, Oblivion plays during the second phase of The Akh Afah Amphitheatre (Hard) introduced during A Realm Reborn's 2.4 post-patch. The list I have, however, states the scroll wasn't available until patch 3.4, which was in the Heavensward expansion. The materials to make the orchestrion roll drop in the extreme version of the trial. A fun fact is the MSQ version of The Akh Afah Amphitheatre is labeled as "Hard", but no normal version exists. At least as far as I know.

7. Fiend - 3,170,409

Album: The Far Edge of Fate
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.2
Obtained from: Crafted by Level 60 Alchemist with Faded Copy of Fiend, dropped in Containment Bay S1T7 (Extreme).

A song compared to Powerman 5000's When World's Collide, the song is the most popular off The Far Edge of Fate. The battle music for the second phase of Containment Bay S1T7, the song is also known as Sephirot's Theme. The first trial in the Warring Triad raid series, those who miss the music at level 60 will get a second chance to go back and run the trail if they want to do The Hero's Journey at the end of Shadowbringers.

6. Wayward Daughter - 3,473,914

Album: Stormblood
Expansion: Stormblood patch 4.3
Obtained from: Crafted by Level 70 Alchemist with Faded Copy of Under the Moonlight, dropped in The Minstrel's Ballad: Tsukuyomi's Pain.

The music for the final phase of Castrum Fluminis boss fight, Wayward Daughter (aka Tsukuyomi's Theme) is a good way to end the Stormblood MSQ before the story takes the player to Shadowbringers. The most popular Stormblood song on Spotify as of 1 December 2024, I believe the contrast between the female vocalist singing in Japanese and the male vocalist in English helps sell the song, along with the conclusion of the story of a villain some found sympathetic. Although I still like Fordola more.

Spotify's Top 20 Final Fantasy XIV Orchestrion Rolls - Spots 11-15

I love the music in Final Fantasy XIV. Over Thanksgiving I went down the rabbit hole looking for FFXIV music on Spotify to create a playlist or two. I found more FFXIV albums than I knew existed and none of them contain Dawntrail music. I also discovered that 43 songs had more than 1 million streams, with 20 of them listened to over 2 million times.

With 600 orchestrion rolls available in-game and another 118 rolls in existence through seasonal events, the online store and in bonus content, a lot of music is available to fill the 8 slots available for players to put in the orchestration lists to play in inns and housing. So I got the idea to list the most popular music in FFXIV and how to obtain the orchestrion rolls. Due to including YouTube videos, I'll divide the list into 4 posts, with 5 songs per post. I'll also list the number of times streamed as recorded on 1 December 2024.

Spots 15 down to 11:

15. What Angel Wakes Me - 2,253,713

Album: Shadowbringers
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.0
Obtained from: Crafted by Level 80 Alchemist with Faded Copy of What Angel Wakes Me, dropped in The Dancing Plague (Extreme).

I wasn't sure if the song annoyed more players than it brought joy. Also known as Titania's Theme or The Dancing Plague Theme, What Angel Wakes Me is the boss music for the final boss in the level 73 dungeon The Dancing Plague. Given the trial is set in the faerie kingdom of Il Mheg, the music fits with the overall aesthetics of the zone.

The music video above is one of hungrychad's karaoke-style videos 

14. Insatiable - 2,269,234

Album: Shadowbringers
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.05
Obtained from: Teleportation portal for Treasure Hunt: The Dungeons of Lyhe Ghiah randomly spawns after the completion of a Timeworn Zonureskin Map.

While Mekkah Dee's video shows the final boss fight in Holminster Switch, Insatiable is used in several boss fights throughout the Shadowbringers expansion's levelling dungeons. While a personal take, the song's title refers to the sin eaters insatiable appetite for aether obtained from living beings.

The orchestration roll is a drop from The Dungeons of Lyhe Ghiah, an instance accessible through Timeworn Zonureskin Maps. These maps are obtained from level 80 mature trees, lush vegetation patches, mineral deposits, rocky outcrops, and fishing holes. Or, for those who hate gathering, from the market board.

13. Rise - 2,412,408

Album: The Far Edge of Fate
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.4
Obtained by: Completing the quest: Judgment Day.

Another song from the Heavensward expansion's Alexander raid series, the orchestrion roll is obtained by completing the quest to unlock the 12th and final boss, Alexander Prime. The song plays during the second phase of the Alexander fight.

Players unfamiliar with the song's title might know the music from the first words, "Sonic Boom".

12. Endwalker - Footfalls - 2,447,942

Album: Endwalker
Expansion: Endwalker patch 6.0
Obtained from: Completing the final quest of the Endwalker expansion, Endwalker.

Endwalker - Footfalls is the main theme of the Endwalker expansion. For the video, hungrychad just had to overlay his karaoke-style lyrics over the final Endwalker trailer. Sometimes I just don't have a lot to say about an orchestrion roll except listen to it.

11. Neath Dark Waters - 2,724,875

Album: Shadowbringers
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.1
Obtained from: Goushs Ooan in The Ondo Cups for 350 Bicolor Gemstones after achieving Shared FATEs Rank 2 in The Tempest.

Sometimes a scene pops up in a video game that makes your jaw drop. Add in the proper music and the moment becomes memorable. That's the only way I can describe the overworld theme for Amaurot. Separate from the duty of the same name, the city of Amaurot players see in The Tempest is something from the mind of perhaps Final Fantasy XIV's greatest villain, Emet-Selch.

Spotify's Top 20 Final Fantasy XIV Orchestion Rolls - Spots 16-20

I love the music in Final Fantasy XIV. Over Thanksgiving I went down the rabbit hole looking for FFXIV music on Spotify to create a playlist or two. I found more FFXIV albums than I knew existed and none of them contain Dawntrail music. I also discovered that 43 songs had more than 1 million streams, with 20 of them listened to over 2 million times.

With 600 orchestrion rolls available in-game and another 118 rolls in existence through seasonal events, the online store and in bonus content, a lot of music is available to fill the 8 slots available for players to put in the orchestration lists to play in inns and housing. So I got the idea to list the most popular music in FFXIV and how to obtain the orchestrion rolls. Due to including YouTube videos, I'll divide the list into 4 posts, with 5 songs per post. I'll also list the number of times streamed as recorded on 1 December 2024.

Spots 20 down to 16:

20. Crumbling Lies (Front) - 2,038,993

Album: Death Unto Dawn
Expansion: Shadowbringers patch 5.2
Obtained from: Completing the quest One Way To Do It. 

Crumbling Lies (Front) is a cutscene theme from the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse raid series in Shadowbringers. The raid series was a cross-over collaboration with the team from PlatinumGames, makers of Nier: Automata. The YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse questline offers several orchestration rolls, with Crumbling Lies available before reaching The Puppet's Bunker.

I should also add that the song was the only one in which I could not find a player-made video featuring the music.

19. Exponential Entropy - 2,059,108

Album: The Far Edge of Fate
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.4
Obtained from: Completing the quest Thus Spake Quickthinx.

For those who don't recognize the title, this is the "Forward and Back" song from the Alexander raid series at the end of Heavensward. The music also plays from the Cruise Chaser mount available in the FFXIV cash shop. 

The quest unlocks the 11th of the 12 bosses of the series in addition to the orchestrion roll. The video is was created by hungrychad, a prolific creator of karaoke-style videos.

18. Sultana Dreaming - 2,093,047

Album: A Realm Reborn
Expansion: Heavensward patch 3.3
Obtained from: Purchased from Roarich in Ul'dah - Steps of Nald (10.6, 9.5) for 5000 gil.

Sultana Dreaming is the night theme for the starting city of Ul'dah. While the OST was introduced in A Realm Reborn, the orchestion roll was not introduced into the game until the Heavensward expansion with the rest of the starting city zone music.

Each of the starting cities from A Realm Reborn have day and night themes, with Sultana Dreaming the most popular of the 6 tunes on Spotify. The song takes on a whole different meaning by the end of A Realm Reborn, which might account for the tunes popularity on Spotify. Also, I believe the orchestrion roll is the only one on the list available for purchase for gil from a vendor.

17. Triumph - 2,130,808

Album: Stormblood
Expansion: Stormblood patch 4.2
Obtained from: Purchased from the Gold Saucer Attendant in the Gold Saucer for 50,000 MGP.

The stirring boss theme from Stormblood's levelling dungeons, Triumph is one of those songs that wakes a player up before going into a fight. At least, that's the way I felt when I recently went into The Sirensong Sea and faced the final boss, Lorelei. For those wondering, Lorelei is the first boss pictured in Mekkah Dee's video above.

16. The Worm's Tail - 2,201,437

Album: Stormblood
Expansion: Stormblood patch 4.1
Obtained from: Crafted by Level 70 Alchemist (Master Alchemist V) with Faded Copy of The Worm's Tail, dropped in The Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain

The song is often cited as Shinru's Theme, but is played during the second phase of The Royal Menagerie. The final trial of Stormblood 6.0, the material needed to craft the orchestrion roll comes from the advanced version of the 8-character trial. Shinryu is not permanently defeated in this trial and makes another appearance in Endwalker.