Despite being 23 years old and having Final Fantasy 14 to contend with, Final Fantasy 11 is locking off one of its biggest servers due to overpopulation

Final Fantasy 11 might be the older sibling that barely gets any adoration from its parents as far as Final Fantasy MMOs go, but the classic is actually growing in popularity 23 years on from its initial launch. In fact, new players have been crowding out Final Fantasy 11 so severely that Square Enix is planning to lock off a third server.

Producer and director Yoji Fujito explains the company's plans in a new blog post (thanks, Automaton), writing that they've noticed "congestion on the Odin World server has been increasing rapidly" as of late.

When too many concurrent players are squished into a single server, the MMO could suffer from slowdown or other related issues, so Square Enix is removing "the option to create new characters on the Odin World server" altogether on March 10, 2026, and you won't be able to transfer characters from other servers into Odin World either.

This surprisingly isn't Square Enix's first rodeo when it comes to blocking off new characters. Last year, the publisher suspended the creation and transfer of characters in Final Fantasy 11's two most popular servers: Asura World and Bahamut World. Newbies have since been flooding into Odin World as their starting point, meaning the two-decade-old game has been popular enough to lock down three entire servers in less than a year.

"Of all the game's Worlds, the Odin server has consistently ranked just behind the top two in terms of concurrent users and, since the latter half of last year, has become the most popular choice for new adventurers starting their journey," Fujito writes. "We plan to continue monitoring the number of logged-in users as well as various other factors and will seek to resume the above-mentioned services and functionality when appropriate."

Asura and Bahamut World have also seen a "slight decrease" in overall population, but Fujito says the server load "remains relatively unchanged" so those servers won't be opening up to new characters any time soon. "In addition to developing and making revisions to the in-game content, we are also working hard to maintain an environment where players around the world can properly enjoy the game."

All the newfound attention for Final Fantasy 11 is even more impressive when you remember that series fans have another hugely popular, newer, and still consistently-updated option available in the form of Final Fantasy 14 if they're in the mood for an online game. Final Fantasy 14 itself is on the upswing, too, with 110,000 new players joining in a three month period.

Final Fantasy 11 devs pay tribute to 91-year-old grandma who played the MMO for almost 20 years before passing away: "Thank you for journeying through Vana'diel."