Final Fantasy XI is the most profitable Final Fantasy ever

In the wake of the celebration of Final Fantasy XI's ten year anniversary, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced that FFXI was the singlemost profitableFinal Fantasy title in the series' history.

The announcement surely comes as a surprise to many Final Fantasy diehards because FFXI was likely the most controversial and divisive in the series' history. However, this illustrates the staggering earning power of the subscription MMO.

Despite tens of millions of people lining up to pay full price for past games in the series like Final Fantasy VII and the recent Final Fantasy XIII, it still pays more to have a smaller, devoted group of people throwing fresh cash at you every month.

Most of these profits likely come from Southeast Asia and Japan where the game was able to find a much stronger audience than it did in the United States.

Now we're curious to hear how these numbers stack up against the relatively disastrous launch of Final Fantasy XIV.