Real money trading, or RMT, has been a big problem in Final Fantasy XIV, and it’s one that Square Enix has been constantly trying to fight back against. Square Enix regularly drops the ban hammer on these accounts, and that number has been increasing in recent months.
Over 7,000 accounts were terminated in the latest ban wave, which is larger than usual. Typically, each time Square Enix does a ban wave for these offenses, there are less than 1,000 to 4,000 accounts banned. In this ban wave, 6,099 accounts were permanently terminated for participating in RMT or prohibited activities, and three accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, 1,385 accounts were terminated for RMT advertising, and 207 accounts were banned for botting activity not related to RMT vendors. All of the bans mentioned were completed between Sept. 22 and 28.
In September, this brings the total ban wave to over 24,000 accounts. In August, one ban wave terminated over 10,000 accounts in one go. The number has been higher due in part to a larger effort to crack down on the practice in the last year or so.
Back in October 2021, FFXIV updated the prohibited activities related to the Party Finder, where players would constantly have to wade through advertisements for Gil sellers and those selling Duty clears while trying to find things to do with other players in the game.
Square Enix reminds players that they should report any RMT activity they see in the in-game reporting system. To do that, simply right-click the character name if you see something in chat about it, then select Report and then Report RMT Activity.
