FFXIV Best Server 2021

There are three Data Center for FFXIV: Japanese, North American, and European. Click this link to see Server Status.

1. Best Server Status

Status Score Description
Preferred 100 Relatively sparsely populated World with room to spare. Players who transfer to or create new characters on these Worlds will receive special bonuses.
New World 95 A recently added World. Players who transfer to or create new characters on designated New Worlds will receive special bonuses.
Standard 85 Inhabited by a manageable number of player characters.
Congested 80 A crowded, highly populated World. Cannot be selected for new character creation or Home World Transfer destinations.

2. FFXIV Best Server 2021

2.1 FFXIV North American Server

Aether Primal Crystal
Adamantoise Behemoth Balmung
Cactuar Excalibur Brynhildr
Faerie Exodus Coeurl
Gilgamesh Famfrit Diabolos
Jenova Hyperion Goblin
Midgardsormr Lamia Malboro
Sargatanas Leviathan Mateus
Siren Ultros Zalera

Best FFXIV Server in North American

Server Name Description
Aether Adamantoise
  • Attitude: Friendly, relaxed, with a small server feel.
  • Cultural Communities: Players from the American Pacific Northwest; Potentially LGBT friendly.
  • Hunt Community: Active. Hunt trains organized nightly.
  • Market Board: No trouble buying or selling.
Aether Cactuar
  • Attitude: Cliquey. Friendly and open, with most players in endgame areas. Sense of community. Goofy.
  • Cultural Communities: Second-largest Spanish-speaking community in North America behind Hyperion.
  • Raid Community: 3rd highest in North America behind Gilgamesh and Sargatanas.
  • Hunt Community: Active and organized, quick to excise early pullers.
  • Roleplay Community: Present. Small.
  • Market Board: Healthy, but crafting bots can make selling difficult; potions are cheap.
  • Other Notes: Active outside the game on social media with a lot of server-oriented pride. Novice network is active and helpful.
Aether Faerie
  • Attitude: Welcoming; laid-back and new-player friendly; socially-focused and extroverted.. Quiet outside of Limsa.
  • Cultural Communities: LGBT-friendly.
  • Hunt Community: Active, with many linkshells. Can be prone to sniping. Mostly active on weekends; not a lot of tracker usage.
  • Market Board: Stable, with a focus on glamours. Seller’s Market.
Aether Gilgamesh
  • Raid Community: Hardcore.
  • Market Board: Healthy, with a good turnover.
  • Other Notes: Formerly declared the “reddit” server when ARR was launched, prior to the cross-world party system– still popular with redditors. Some of the highest end-game content clear rates. Congested.
Aether Jenova
  • Attitude: Friendly and helpful.
  • Cultural Communities: Some Australian players.
  • Player Base: Balanced between raiders and causal players.
  • Roleplay Community: Highly active, but relatively private.
  • Hunt Community: Active, polite, and organized.
  • Raid Community: Competitive with Cactuar.
  • Market Board: Fair.
  • Other Notes: Roleplay Free Companies hold frequent events, coordinated through the server’s primary Discord.
Aether Midgardsormr
  • Player Base: Casual to moderate.
  • Hunt Community: Organized, multiple daily trains.
  • Raid Community: Present.
  • Market Board: Cheap raid food.
  • Other Notes: Helpful Novice Network
Aether Sargatanas
  • Raid Community: Significant, with a high concentration of FFXIV content creators and streamers.
  • Hunt Community: Active, organized, effecient.
  • Other Notes: Novice Network is well-regulated, but can get off-topic; it’s sometimes used as a makeshift recruitment linkshell.
Aether Siren
  • Attitude: Welcoming.
  • Cultural Communities: LGBT-friendly.
  • Hunt Community: Large, active, and organized.
  • Crafting Community: Large.
Crystal Balmung
  • Roleplay Community: Extremely prominent; “Largest” in North America.
  • Raid Community: Small.
  • Market Board: “Buyer’s Market”.
  • Hunt Community: Small, but active.
  • Other Notes: Notorious for erotic roleplaying, which is mostly behind closed doors; Known to be a congested server. Current home of A Stage Reborn.
Crystal Brynhildr
  • Attitude: Quiet, though that may be reflective of the expansion cycle. Small population leads to a sense of community.
  • Market Board: Expensive. High level of fluctuation and poor economy sense.
  • Hunt Community: Limited, usually performing trains in the mornings.
  • Raid Community: Present, but potentially in decline after data center remix.
Crystal Coeurl
  • Hunt Community: Considered the best in North America. Uses the World Party Finder. Some toxicity reported
  • Raid Community: Not the server’s focus. Raiders are leaving after the data center remix.
  • Crafting Community: Very small.
  • Roleplay Community: Present and growing.
  • Market Board: Seller’s market.
  • Roleplay Community: Little to none.
Crystal Diabolos
  • Attitude: Friendly overall, but no real sense of community. Quiet, with busy players; “Do It Yourself” vibe; not friendly to new players. Friendlier than it used to be.
  • Crafting Community: Very large.
  • Hunt Community: No-nonsense and mostly through dedicated linkshells, not through Party Finder or shouts.
  • Raid Community: Active, but close-knit
  • Market Board: Buyer’s market for crafteds. Inflated prices for maps and materials.
  • Other Notes: Former home of “A Stage Reborn” nonprofit.. Tight Novice Network community.
Crystal Goblin
  • Attitude: Quiet; Cliquey
  • Hunt Community: Active. Strong, with timed courtesy periods; community uses Party Finder.
  • Roleplay Community: Little to none.
  • Market Board: Messy.
  • Other Notes: Novice Network is chatty, but will answer questions promptly.
Crystal Malboro
  • Attitude: Quiet; Occasional toxicity; Difficult to make friends; Introverted. Tight-knit and cautious. Quirky, but overall kind and helpful.
  • Player Base: “Weaker” players.
  • Market Board: Low for Glamours and Materia, high for food, potions, and crafted gear. Good turnover. Erratic.
  • Roleplay Community: Little to none. Sparse, but existent.
  • Raid Community: In decline after datacenter remix. Low quality.
  • Hunt Community: Present, uses Party Finder. Tight-knit. Well-organized.
  • Other Notes: Has a large Bard Bard community. Complaints of poor-quality Free Companies. Helpful Novice Network. Less focus on Free Companies for most players, who focus on Party Finder instead. Can be dead at certain hours.
Crystal Mateus
  • Attitude: Nice. Some toxicity in Ul’dah. Cliquey, with bias against non-roleplayers.
  • Raid Community: Small.
  • Roleplay Community: Huge.
  • Hunt Community: Strong, but fractured. Focuses on area shouts over Party Finder.
  • Market Board: Extremely competitive, “to the point of harassment”.
  • Other Notes: Inflated population numbers due to a large number of alternate characters that are level 50 and under. Congested server, large erotic roleplaying community. Tense relationship between roleplayers and non-roleplayers.
Crystal Zalera
  • Player Base: Casual-leaning.
  • Attitude: Friendly, but can be cliquey.
  • Raid Community: Existent.
  • Roleplay Community: Very small.
  • Hunt Community: Known to be high quality with active tracking and communication through shouts.
  • Market Board: Unstable, with fewer materials for sale; competitive. Seller’s Market. Expensive food.
Primal Behemoth
  • Cultural Communities: Brazilian players; Australian and Kiwi players.
  • Market Board: Better for buyers, with rare map and primal drops abundant.
  • Roleplay Community: Small.
  • Raid Community: Considered to be part of the core of Primal for raiding, with streaming Free Companies.
  • Hunt Community: Prone to drama, but currently calm. History of players who pull on-sight.
Primal Excalibur
  • Player Base: Hardcore and progression-minded.
  • Raid Community: Hardcore.
  • Hunt Community: Linkshell networks with nightly trains. Extremely dedicated with morning trains.
  • Market Board: Expensive, seller’s market. Lower compared to Leviathan.
  • Other Notes: Wondrous Tails community.
Primal Exodus
  • Player Base: Casual-friendly.
  • Attitude: Some reports of toxicity. Friendly and supportive.
  • Hunt Community: Sporadic outside of S-Rank hunts; uses shouting more than Party Finder.
  • Raid Community: Sizeable, especially for the server’s population
  • Market Board: Steady, with high turnover. High level of undercutting.
  • Roleplay Scene: Modest, but continuity-focused.
  • Other Notes: Novice Network has recently improved. Upskirting problems in Limsa.
Primal Famfrit
  • Attitude: Laid back, new player friendly; complimentary of fashion.
  • Hunt Community: Patient, organized. Trains 2-3 times a day with increased traffic for S-Rank hunts.
  • Roleplay Community: Populous in Limsa.
  • Market Board: Stable; undercutting is usually only 5%-10% of the going rate. Competitive
  • Other Notes: Home to a number of partnered Twitch streamers. Novice Network helpful.
Primal Hyperion
  • Attitude: Usually friendly, meme-oriented. Laid-back, quiet.
  • Player Base: Mixture of casual and end-game players.
  • Cultural Communities: Largest Spanish-speaking community in North America. Furry community members.
  • Roleplay Community: Highly active. “Primal’s Roleplay Server”. Erotic roleplaying is present, and prominent.
  • Raid Community: Active.
  • Hunt Community: Active with linkshell networks, but also communication through Party Finder and Shout.
  • Market Board: Undercutting uncommon. Poor reputation.
  • Other Notes: Novice Network is considered to be very good; history of drama caused mentors to come together.
Primal Lamia
  • Attitude: New-player friendly; cozy.
  • Cultural Communities: Third-largest community of Spanish-speaking players, behind Hyperion and Cactuar.
  • Player Base: Casual to moderate.
  • Raid Community: Present, but not egotistical.
  • Hunt Community: Present, efficient, but wane with the patch cycle. Stormblood trains running every few hours.
  • Crafting Community: Present and helpful.
  • Other Notes: Home of Youtube channel Free Company and raid team “NEST”
Primal Leviathan
  • Player Base: Primarily hardcore raiders.
  • Raid Community: Hardcore.
  • Crafting Community: Very small.
  • Roleplay Community: Little to none, not the server’s focus.
  • Hunt Community: Extremely active, organized, inclusive and widespread. Linkshells typically stay full.
  • Market Board: Seller’s market.
  • Other Notes: Known to be congested.
Primal Ultros
  • Attitude: Quiet, helpful. Some toxicity in Limsa. Cliquey, “trollish”. Rough for newer players. Lots of trolls.
  • Hunt Community: Active, with a history of trolling. Cliquey, divided between “elite” and “general” communities. Improving. Achievement FATEs feel difficult to organize.
  • PvP Community: Present.
  • Raid Community: Present, but fractured.
  • Roleplay Community: Sparse.
  • Market Board: Frequent undercutting.
  • Other Notes: Preferred server of NeoGAF and 4Chan forum users.

Buy FFXIV Gil Cheap

2.2 FFXIV Japanese Server

Elemental Gaia Mana
Aegis Alexander Anima
Atomos Bahamut Asura
Carbuncle Durandal Belias
Garuda Fenrir Chocobo
Gungnir Ifrit Hades
Kujata Ridill Ixion
Ramuh Tiamat Mandragora
Tonberry Ultima Masamune
Typhon Valefor Pandaemonium
Unicorn Yojimbo Shinryu
Zeromus Titan

Best FFXIV Server in Japanese

Server Name Description
Elemental Aegis
  • Other Notes: Prominent Lalafell-only Free Company with frequent player events.
Elemental Carbuncle
  • Other Notes: Large community of Japanese housing artists.
Elemental Kujata
  • Cultural Communities: Australian and Kiwi players.
  • Other Notes: Considered an “overflow” server for when Tonberry is closed to new character registration for English-speakers on the JP data centers.
Elemental Ramuh
  • Cultural Communities: South Korean players.
Elemental Tonberry
  • Cultural Communities: Australian and Kiwi players. English-speaking Asian residents of places like Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Southern Asia/the Middle East.
  • Hunt Community: Largest hunt community on Elemental, primarily using linkshells and shouts.
  • Raid Community: Active and relatively successful. Competitive statics that compete for World First clears.
  • Market Board: Supply driven, with low prices.
  • Other Notes: As there is no Australian data center, most English-speaking people in the Pacific area play on Tonberry. Communication with Japanese players using Autotranslate is common. People wait for party members to watch cutscenes in instances; Novice Network is well-regulated.
Elemental Typhon
  • Cultural Communities: Taiwanese players. Third largest English community on Elemental, behind Tonberry and Kujata.
Elemental Unicorn
  • Player Base: Few players in lower-level areas.
  • Cultural Communities: Very few English speakers.
  • Market Board: Cheap.
  • Other Notes: Available housing.
Gaia Bahamut
  • Other Notes: Popular screenshot editors
Gaia Durandal
  • Player Base: Rare to see new players, even with preferred world status.
  • Cultural Communities: Very small English-speaking population.
  • Crafting Community: Large.
  • Market Board: Buyer’s Market.
  • Raid Community: Decent.
  • Other Notes: Plentiful housing.
Gaia Ifrit
  • Attitude: Warm and welcoming Japanese players.
  • Raid Community: Average rates for Japanese servers.
  • Hunt Community: Morning and night hunt groups through Party Finder; map groups also active.
  • Market Board: Healthy economy.
  • Cultural Communities: Small amount of English-speaking players.
Gaia Ridill
  • Other Notes: Lots of player-run events for its size
Gaia Zeromus
  • Other Notes: Large Bard Bard performance community.
Mana Asura
  • Cultural Communities: Two English-speaking Free Companies.
  • Raid Community: Some top-tier raiders, but lower-than-average Japanese clear rates.
Mana Chocobo
  • Raid Community: Japan’s primary raiding server.
  • Other Notes: Congested.
Mana Ixion
  • Other Notes: Frequent community-run cafes and events, with a live art draw every month.
Mana Mandragora
  • Market Board: Comparatively cheap.
Mana Masamune
  • Cultural Communities: Some English-speaking players; largest English population on Mana. Indonesian players.
Mana Pandaemonium
  • Roleplay Community: Extremely large, notorious for erotic roleplaying.
Mana Shinryu
  • Cultural Communities: Extremely Japanese-focused server with very little in the way of English-speakers; Autotranslate is not commonly used.
  • Player Base: Leans toward casual; players don’t overwork themselves; lots of players using character Twitter accounts or Mirapri.
  • Hunt Community: Two major hunting linkshells that share information, easy to hunt with and grateful if you source marks.
  • Other Notes: Busy, with plenty of people to play with around morning and noon in Japan, with expected increases with the world visit system; Scarce housing.. Formerly the PS4 server.

2.3 FFXIV European Server

Chaos Light
Cerberus Lich
Louisoix Odin
Moogle Phoenix
Omega Shiva
Ragnarok Twintania
Spriggan Zodiark

Best FFXIV Server in European

Server Name Description
Chaos Cerberus
  • Attitude: Quiet on the overworld.
  • Cultural Communities: Russian-speaking players.
  • Market Board: Healthy.
Chaos Louisoix
  • Player Base: Casual.
  • Hunt Community: Active and dedicated
  • Market Board: Seller’s market
  • Crafting Community: Lacking.
Chaos Moogle
  • Cultural Communities: French-speaking players.
  • Hunt Community: Dedicated, with 2-3 trains a day.
Chaos Omega
  • Attitude: Toxicity reported in public chat.
  • Hunt Scene: Very active, using linkshells and shouting.
  • Roleplaying Community: Active. Unofficial European roleplaying server, focused on story and continuity.
Chaos Ragnarok
  • Cultural Communities: Arabic-speaking players; French-speaking players; Largest population of Italian-speaking players
  • Roleplay Community: Active French roleplaying scene.
  • Crafting Community: Large.
  • Raid Community: Highest clear rates for savage raids out of the European servers.
  • Market Board: Buyer’s market.
  • Other Notes: Home to “Entropy”, a Free Company that regularly competes for World First clears in Savage raids, with relative success.. Known to be congested. Novice Network is not only supportive, but multilingual.
Light Lich
  • Other Notes: Now a much more active server after a year of preferred status.
Light Odin
  • Cultural Communities: Scandinavian players.
  • Player Base: Players still participating in early game content.
  • Attitude: Chatty.
  • Raid Community: Hardcore
  • Crafting Community: Large.
  • Hunt Community: Poor; S-ranks are often sniped, rather than shared.
  • Market Board: Highly competitive.
Light Phoenix
  • Player Base: Mixed between raiders and casuals, high population.
  • Attitude: Friendly, helpful, chill.
  • Cultural Communities: UK and Scandanavian players.
Light Shiva
  • Cultural Communities: German-speaking players.
  • Roleplay Community: Prominent German roleplaying community.
Light Zodiark
  • Cultural Communities: Italian-speaking players.
  • Crafting Community: Large.
  • Market Board: Buyer’s Market.
  • Other Notes: Large German FC recently opened in cooperation with Square-Enix

3. Create or Transfer Server Bonuses

3.1 Character Creation Bonuses on New Server

Creating a new character on a newly established World will earn you the bonuses outlined below.

These incentives will remain in place until the active player populations of the Worlds in question have grown to a specified number. Please note that once a World has been removed from the “New World” category, the various bonuses will no longer be applied. In the case of newly created characters, these bonuses will continue for 90 days (including the day of creation) regardless of any change in World status.

* When creating a new character, Worlds in which these bonuses are applicable will be marked with a star icon (★) on the World selection screen.

Bonuses awarded to new characters on first login

  • Double EXP bonus (until level 70 is reached)
  • Gift of 10 silver chocobo feathers, exchangeable for low-mid level gear to improve the leveling experience

Bonuses for characters created during bonus period that attain level 30 in any class

  • Gift of 1,000,000 gil (*1)
  • Gift of 15 days of free play time (*2)

*1 Limited to once per data center region on a single service account.
*2 Limited to once per service account when creating a new character on either a New World or Preferred World.

When requirements for the free play time bonus are met, 15 days of play time will be added to your account upon changing areas or your next log in. In the event the Square Enix Account Management System is under maintenance, another attempt to add play time to your account will be made after twenty four hours. A notification will be sent to the e-mail address registered to your Square Enix account when play time has been successfully added.

Characters created on newly established Worlds during the bonus period will be restricted from using the Home World Transfer Service for 90 days.

Players with pre-existing characters on new Worlds are still eligible to receive these bonuses for new characters created after the bonus period has begun. All new characters beyond the first created will also receive any bonuses not specifically restricted as one-time only incentives.

3.2 Bonuses for Transferring to a New Server

Transferring to a New World will earn you the bonuses outlined below.

These bonuses will remain in effect until the population of active players in the World in question has grown to a specified number.

  • Home World Transfer Service is free of charge
  • Gift of 10 gold chocobo feathers, exchangeable for special rewards such as rare mounts

Bonuses for owners of personal housing/apartments

  • Personal housingReimbursement for the full price of the estate, plus compensation of 3,000,000 gil for non-recoverable furnishings

    * Please apply for a Home World transfer after removing your estate hall and furnishings, but DO NOT relinquish the land. If you have relinquished the deed to your plot, you will not be eligible to receive the bonuses outlined above.

  • ApartmentsReimbursement of the 500,000 gil price, and compensation of 500,000 gil for non-recoverable furnishings

    * Please apply for a Home World transfer after removing your furnishings, but DO NOT vacate the apartment. If you have relinquished the rights to your property, you will not be eligible to receive the bonuses outlined above.

* Any gil above the maximum of 999,999,999 will be lost.

Characters that have transferred to a New World during the bonus period will be restricted from using the Home World Transfer Service for 90 days.

3.3 Character Creation Bonuses on Preferred Servers

Creating a new character on a Preferred World will earn you the bonuses outlined below.

These incentives will remain in place until the active player populations of the Worlds in question have grown to a specified number. Please note that once a World has been removed from the “Preferred World” category, the various bonuses will no longer be applied. In the case of newly created characters, these bonuses will continue for 90 days (including the day of creation) regardless of any change in World status.

* When creating a new character, Worlds in which these bonuses are applicable will be marked with a star icon (★) on the World selection screen.

Bonuses awarded to new characters on first login

  • Double EXP bonus (until level 70 is reached)
  • Gift of 10 silver chocobo feathers, exchangeable for low-mid level gear to improve the leveling experience

Bonuses for characters created during bonus period that attain level 30 in any class

  • Gift of 15 days of free play time (*1)

* 1 Limited to once per service account when creating a new character on either a New World or Preferred World.

When requirements for the free play time bonus are met, 15 days of play time will be added to your account upon changing areas or your next log in. In the event the Square Enix Account Management System is under maintenance, another attempt to add play time to your account will be made after twenty four hours. A notification will be sent to the e-mail address registered to your Square Enix account when play time has been successfully added.

Characters created on Preferred Worlds during the bonus period will be restricted from using the Home World Transfer Service for 90 days.

Players with pre-existing characters on Preferred Worlds are still eligible to receive these bonuses for new characters created after the bonus period has begun. All new characters beyond the first created will also receive any bonuses not specifically restricted as one-time only incentives.

3.4 Bonuses for Transferring from Congested Servers to Preferred Servers

Transferring from a Congested World to a Preferred World will earn you the bonuses described below.

These bonuses will remain in effect until the active player population of Congested and Preferred Worlds has stabilized, but please note that the population status of a World is subject to change.

  • Home World Transfer Service is free of charge
  • Gift of 10 gold chocobo feathers, exchangeable for special rewards such as rare mounts

Bonuses for owners of personal housing/apartments

  • Personal housingReimbursement for the full price of the estate, plus compensation of 3,000,000 gil for non-recoverable furnishings

    * Please apply for a Home World transfer after removing your estate hall and furnishings, but DO NOT relinquish the land. If you have relinquished the deed to your plot, you will not be eligible to receive the bonuses outlined above.

  • ApartmentsReimbursement of the 500,000 gil price, and compensation of 500,000 gil for non-recoverable furnishings

    * Please apply for a Home World transfer after removing your furnishings, but DO NOT vacate the apartment. If you have relinquished the rights to your property, you will not be eligible to receive the bonuses outlined above.

* Any gil above the maximum of 999,999,999 will be lost.

Characters that have transferred to a Preferred World during the bonus period will be restricted from using the Home World Transfer Service for 90 days.

Guides & Tips