World
For the in-universe lore meaning of "world", see The Reflections.
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Worlds (sometimes called servers) are individual instances of Final Fantasy XIV, with their own isolated set of overworld zones. Worlds are grouped into logical data centers, which are further grouped into physical data centers or regions.
Every character has a home world which is selected at character creation, and most of the game's social features can only be used to interact with players within the same world. After character creation, temporary travel to other worlds is possible with some limitations, and permanent home world transfers can be purchased for real-world money.
A player's choice of region can impact the latency they experience, as different physical data centers will be closer to the player than others. The logical data center and specific home world chosen for a character do not affect connection quality.
Impact on social features
Characters can only interact directly if they are in the same world. Additionally, many social features of the game can only be used to interact with characters on the same world, or can only be used while on the character's home world. These include:
- Free Company membership
- Linkshells
- Player Housing
- Retainers
Some features can be used to interact with players on different worlds within the same logical data center, including:
Congestion and preferred worlds
In order to balance the playerbase among the available worlds, worlds with high population are marked "Congested," which prevents characters from being created or transferred there. Conversely, worlds with low population are marked "Preferred" or "Preferred+," and there are incentives for creating characters on these worlds or transferring existing characters out of congested worlds and onto preferred worlds.
World classification and specific incentives for using preferred worlds change from patch to patch. For current information about incentives, see the server status page and the official Play Guide entry on population balancing.
Selecting a world
Region/data center selection
When logging in for the first time, you will be prompted to select a region and logical data center to connect to. You will only be able to create and log into characters within your selected data center, but you can connect to a different data center at any time by selecting the "Data Center" option on the title screen, or from character select, by selecting "World" and then clicking the current data center name at the top of the list.
When selecting a region, the names of logical data centers and their worlds are displayed. Select the logical data center you want to connect to, then "Proceed." You are not selecting a specific world at this step; the game displays this information in case you're looking for a specific world.
If you have previously logged in with a character, the data center of the last character played will be denoted with a star symbol and highlighted text on these screens.
Character creation and home world selection
When creating a character, the game will suggest a world to use at random. A specific home world can be chosen instead by pressing "Select Another" and using the list of worlds on the right.
Any world on the currently selected data center can be used as a new character's home world. However, characters cannot be created on congested worlds. Characters also cannot be created on worlds which have too many players logged in at once; this is a temporary status that varies depending on time of day and is updated every five minutes.
Characters are bound to the World on which they are created, unless a Home World Transfer Service is purchased from the Mog Station.
Visiting other worlds
Characters can visit other worlds to party with friends, purchase items, and tackle duties. The World Visit System is used to visit worlds within the same data center as a character's home world, while the Data Center Travel system is used to visit worlds in other data centers.
Travel across regions is done via Data Center Travel, but characters can only travel between their home region and Oceania. This means that for e.g. a Japanese character and a European character to meet up, they must both travel to an Oceania world. Characters whose home region is Oceania cannot travel to other regions.
Changing home world
To permanently transfer a character from one home world to another, players need to use the Home World Transfer Service, which costs real-world money. The transfer fee is typically waived if transferring from a congested world to a preferred one, or if transferring to a "Preferred+" world from a less-preferred world.
List of worlds
In the tables below, "Legacy" worlds are worlds that existed before the A Realm Reborn (2.0) relaunch. There were ten of these by the end of patch 1.23b, and they were all physically located in Japan. Four legacy worlds were placed in the new North American data center and one in the European data center. Players had an opportunity during the 2.0 beta to select a different home world for existing characters.
Each world also has an internal ID number that was retrieved from the API via datamining; it is unknown what these IDs are based upon.
North American region
Aether data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 73 | Adamantoise | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 79 | Cactuar | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 54 | Faerie | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 63 | Gilgamesh | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 40 | Jenova | April 04, 2014 | No |
| 65 | Midgardsormr | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 99 | Sargatanas | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 57 | Siren | August 18, 2013 | No |
Crystal data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 91 | Balmung | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 34 | Brynhildr | September 12, 2013 | No |
| 74 | Coeurl | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 62 | Diabolos | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 81 | Goblin | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 75 | Malboro | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 37 | Mateus | September 12, 2013 | No |
| 41 | Zalera | September 12, 2013 | No |
The Crystal Data Center was added on April 23, 2019, and these preexisting Worlds were redistributed to it.
Primal data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 78 | Behemoth | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 93 | Excalibur | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 53 | Exodus | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 35 | Famfrit | September 4, 2013 | No |
| 95 | Hyperion | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 55 | Lamia | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 64 | Leviathan | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 77 | Ultros | August 16, 2013 | No |
Dynamis data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 406 | Halicarnassus | November 1, 2022 | No |
| 407 | Maduin | November 1, 2022 | No |
| 404 | Marilith | November 1, 2022 | No |
| 405 | Seraph | November 1, 2022 | No |
| 408 | Cuchulainn | June 11, 2024 | No |
| 411 | Golem | June 11, 2024 | No |
| 409 | Kraken | June 11, 2024 | No |
| 410 | Rafflesia | June 11, 2024 | No |
European region
In addition to English, German, and French being officially supported languages in the game, there are some smaller communities of other language speakers on European worlds.
For Spanish speakers, common worlds chosen are Ragnarok and Moogle from the Chaos Data Center. There are also third party tools that support translation.
Spanish Translation: Para los hispanohablantes, los mundos comunes elegidos son Ragnarok y Moogle del Centro de Datos del Chaos. También existen herramientas de terceros que ofrecen una traducción automática.
Chaos data denter
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | Cerberus | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 83 | Louisoix | June 16, 2017 | No |
| 71 | Moogle | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 39 | Omega | June 16, 2017 | No |
| 401 | Phantom | July 5, 2022 | No |
| 97 | Ragnarok | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 400 | Sagittarius | July 5, 2022 | No |
| 85 | Spriggan | June 18, 2019 | No |
Light data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 402 | Alpha | July 5, 2022 | No |
| 36 | Lich | September 4, 2013 | No |
| 66 | Odin | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 56 | Phoenix | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 403 | Raiden | July 5, 2022 | No |
| 67 | Shiva | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 33 | Twintania | June 18, 2019 | No |
| 42 | Zodiark | April 04, 2014 | No |
The Light Data Center was added on April 2, 2019, and certain existing Worlds were redistributed to it.
Shadow data center (historical)
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Closure Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ??? | Innocence | June 11, 2024 | August 27, 2024 | No |
| ??? | Pixie | June 11, 2024 | August 27, 2024 | No |
| ??? | Titania | June 11, 2024 | August 27, 2024 | No |
| ??? | Tycoon | June 11, 2024 | August 27, 2024 | No |
Shadow Data Center and the four worlds on it first entered service on June 11, 2024, but as what are officially referred to as probationary worlds, meaning no characters could be created on them or moved to using the World Transfer System (on the Lodestone, they were listed as congested from the get-go to reflect this). This was to be a temporary measure to help mitigate any potential server congestion on other data centers during Dawntrail’s release window. As such, the worlds on Shadow DC were only available for the purposes of Data Center Travel in the event a player could not log into their home world. The Shadow data center was shut down on August 27, 2024.
Japanese region
Elemental data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | Aegis | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 68 | Atomos | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 45 | Carbuncle | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 58 | Garuda | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 94 | Gungnir | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 49 | Kujata | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 72 | Tonberry | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 50 | Typhon | August 18, 2013 | No |
As the World Visit System, Data Center Travel, and the Oceanian Data Center were not available at launch, worlds such as Tonberry, Kujata, and Atomos on the Elemental Data Center became popular choices for players from Southeast Asia and Oceania. As a result, the Elemental Data Center has a higher proportion of English-speaking players compared to other Japanese data centers.[1] English-speaking players on this Data Center should ensure that they have both "J" and "E" selected in the Duty Finder language settings for faster queues.
Gaia data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Alexander | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 69 | Bahamut | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 92 | Durandal | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 46 | Fenrir | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 59 | Ifrit | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 98 | Ridill | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 76 | Tiamat | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 51 | Ultima | August 18, 2013 | No |
Mana data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | Anima | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 23 | Asura | September 12, 2013 | No |
| 70 | Chocobo | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 47 | Hades | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 48 | Ixion | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 96 | Masamune | August 16, 2013 | Yes |
| 28 | Pandaemonium | September 4, 2013 | No |
| 61 | Titan | August 16, 2013 | No |
Meteor data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | Belias | September 12, 2013 | No |
| 82 | Mandragora | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 60 | Ramuh | August 16, 2013 | No |
| 29 | Shinryu | April 4, 2014 | No |
| 30 | Unicorn | September 12, 2013 | No |
| 52 | Valefor | August 18, 2013 | No |
| 31 | Yojimbo | September 12, 2013 | No |
| 32 | Zeromus | September 12, 2013 | No |
The Meteor Data Center was added on July 5, 2022, and these preexisting Worlds were redistributed to it.
Oceanian region
Materia data center
| ID | Name | Activation Date | Legacy World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Bismarck | January 25, 2022 | No |
| 21 | Ravana | January 25, 2022 | No |
| 86 | Sephirot | January 25, 2022 | No |
| 87 | Sophia | January 25, 2022 | No |
| 88 | Zurvan | January 25, 2022 | No |
The Materia data center is unique in that characters on the North American, European, and Japanese regions may freely visit this data center. However, characters with a Home World on Materia may not visit other regions.
In other editions of the game
The Chinese and Korean editions of Final Fantasy XIV are sub-licensed to and operated by different companies (Shanda Games and Actoz Soft, respectively), and therefore have their own data centers with their own unique worlds. Due to the nature of this arrangement, and the fact that both of these editions of the game are always a patch cycle or two behind the international edition, the Chinese and Korean data centers are completely isolated from international worlds and from each other.