The user base for the PlayStation 2 version was truncated initially because of limited sales of the PlayStation 2s hard drive and network adapters that were needed for the game. The Japanese release of Rise of the Zilart was the number one selling game when it debuted with 90,000 copies sold in the first week. The Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack was number 36 and Wings of the Goddess was number 40 on the top 50 best-selling Xbox 360 games in Japan as of December 2007.

For the April–September 2004 financial period, Square Enix saw online gaming, particularly Final Fantasy XI, sales increase by 101 percent and operating profit increase by 230.9 percent. Revenues held steady from subscription services in the summer of 2006; in the fall however, Square acknowledged that online subscription revenues were “unsatisfactory”.

In December of 2002, Square president Yoichi Wada announced that there were over 200,000 subscribers to Final Fantasy XI, allowing the company to break even and start making a profit. In January 2004, Square Enix announced that over 500,000 users utilizing over one million characters were playing the game. Before the release of World of Warcraft, it had the most active players of any MMORPG. There are also currently between 200,000 and 300,000 active players daily. Since its Xbox 360 release, it has become the sixth most played game at Xbox Live, as of August 14, 2006.