When is FFXIV's next Expansion likely to release?

FFXIV Dawntrail launched back in 2024, but what about the next expansion, Final Fantasy XIV 8.0? That’s a question that’s been bandied about a lot by players, typically with a serious amount of doom and gloom surrounding it. We wrapped the main story of Dawntrail with the patch 7.3 quest The Promise of Tomorrow, but there’s a long time between that patch, and whatever comes next.

I do want to point out that this is entirely speculation, and I could be completely off-base. I’d rather be hopeful that we’ll see the next FFXIV Expansion in late 2026 or maybe early 2027, instead of mid/late 2027 as some have predicted. I know either way, there’s a risk of content drought but I remain hopeful about the game’s future.

The next FFXIV Expansion is likely to drop late 2026/early 2027

In general, the predicted release of the next FFXIV Expansion by many players appears to be sometime in 2027, but I’m not 100% sure I agree with that. This is predicated on the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest 2026’s dates. Some people think that we won’t get an official announcement until Fan Fest Japan, or maybe Europe. I don’t really agree with that.

There's still plenty in the world to do, no matter what kind of player you are (Image via Square Enix)

What I think will happen, is that we’ll get an announcement of Final Fantasy XIV 8.0 during Fan Fest North America, and then the major announcement of a release date, almost certainly at Fan Fest Japan. My anticipated release date is late 2026, or most likely, early 2027. I know that Yoshi-P and the team are not keen to do another December release, and who could blame them?

The hard part is going to be figuring out what exactly Square Enix plans to do with 2026 in terms of content. I hope it’s not just “more Occult Crescent”, because I don’t really care for Eureka 2.0 personally. There was a shift around Endwalker in terms of development time, to stop crunch (or at least, less crunch), so the development team can be happy and less stressed-out.

I get that, and respect that, so I’m not at all advocating for the game’s next major expansion to be released as soon as possible. As someone who has covered MMOs for the last 12 or so years, I understand that there’s always going to be a large gap between expansions. You have to juggle content for both the current game, and the upcoming expansion, and that’s difficult.

If it's mid/late 2027, at least I'd have an easier time getting all my Relic weapons done (Image via Square Enix)

I have a hard time buying mid/late 2027, though, for the next FFXIV Expansion. That sounds like entirely too long to wait. Between Endwalker and Dawntrail, there was two years, seven months, and if we take a similar timetable, we’re looking at around February 2027 but I won’t rule anything out. If it’s going to come in late 2027, it sounds like it would be some world-shattering redo, similar to A Realm Reborn. Another Calamity? It would be interesting, at the very least.

As long as there are updates between now and then, every once in a while, I’ll truthfully be fine. I love Final Fantasy XIV, and while I definitely want to see more content, I also have to juggle a lot of time between games I cover.

We also have no idea how much of the FFXIV 8.0 gameplan has already begun, so it’s all really just speculative at this point. I’m confident that at Fan Fest NA, we’ll see the title and probably a brief trailer for wherever 8.0 will take us next. Until then, let’s be patient, and let them cook.

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Edited by Jason Parker