There is a lot of content in FFXIV spread across multiple expansions. If you want to know our opinion on which expansions come out on top, make sure you keep reading.
The latest expansion, Dawntrail, has been announced, with new details being released often. It is due to be released in the Summer of 2024. Although it is not an expansion, I will also be including A Realm Reborn on this list.
Here are all of the FFXIV expansions ranked.
S Tier – Endwalker
Endwalker is a phenomenal experience; everyone should play it if they are interested in MMORPGs. Of course, that does mean completing the rest of the expansions that came before it, but the game is so good that it is quickly done.
This expansion is full of twists and turns, with amazing group and single-player content. If you are prepared for heartbreak, this expansion will break you apart, to put you back together, just to hurt you all over again.
Endwalker has so many twists and turns in the story and is a very involved expansion full of content that it will take you a long time to get through all of it, including side quests, should you want to delve into that route. There are some gem side quests in this list, so try to try them.
The group content includes beautiful battles you can undertake in Raids, Trials, and Dungeons as a team. Even if you don’t plan to do the higher difficulties, they are worth experiencing for the sheer detail in cinematics and abilities that combine to make a tense and exciting atmosphere.
S Tier – Shadowbringers
Shadowbringers is also a beautiful expansion, coming off of the back of Stormblood, which fell flat until post-Stormblood content. Much like Endwalker, prepare for this expansion to break your heart. (See the theme forming?) However, it isn’t all doom and gloom. There are plenty of laughs and laid-back quests to take you through the expansion.
This expansion also welcomes the Nier: Automata crossover, which brings brilliant Raids to the experience and may or may not influence you to play Nier: Automata if you haven’t already.
The world that expands in front of you is stunning and full of whimsy but also carries plenty of darkness within it that will bring rising tension to the game and make it heavy with the atmosphere.
A Tier – Heavensward
Heavensward is a revolutionary experience and will introduce you to so many characters who are bound to become your favorites. (Ser Aymeric, looking at you.) The expansion is full of drastic twists and turns that will shock you to your core and have you bawling your eyes out for hours.
This expansion gifts the player so many beautiful fights to take themselves through and a fantastic soundtrack to accompany it. It is worth playing, as you get to meet some true gems in the side quests.
Heavensward was the start of something magnificent and only improved after that.
B Tier – A Realm Reborn
What may be a controversial take, A Realm Reborn is in the B tier on this list. A Realm Reborn introduces you to characters that you’ll become very familiar with and spend time getting attached to, only to snap the relationships apart by the end of the story. Post A Realm Reborn was incredibly heartbreaking but also led to beautiful stories that took me by surprise and had me in floods of tears as we made our way into Heavensward.
A Realm Reborn is very nostalgic for me, and I never knew that I would be so attached to the story of ARR and some of the characters we met and lost along the way.
C Tier – Stormblood
Personally, I found Stormblood to be the most lackluster expansion out of all of them. While it introduced fascinating characters with immense depth, the quests didn’t grab me as much as I hoped for. Despite that, the areas you travel through in the game are stunning and allow for some very relaxing exploration while getting lost in the vast cities and ocean.
Equally, for me, the Raids and Dungeons didn’t give me the ‘wow’ factor the same way the ones from the other expansions did. It fell flat, but the story picked up in post-Stormblood and had me emotional in a way I wasn’t expecting to be, especially since I didn’t enjoy Stormblood nearly as much as the other expansions.
Overall, every expansion in the game is worth a playthrough. This is my opinion on the best expansions in FFXIV, and you may find the expansions are in a different order than yours! However, if you haven’t played this game before, you are truly missing out on a vast magical world that will steal your heart.
I can’t wait to see what they add to Dawntrail and whether it will take over Endwalker for the top spot!
That does it for our list of all the Final Fantasy XIV expansions ranked! Which FFXIV expansion is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!
