Final Fantasy 14, a game released in September 2010, surprised all when it appeared to be sold out in online stores for the PC in July 2021. Both on Steam and on Square Enix’s storefront, stock for the game was unavailable, but it could be added to wish lists and carts. It does not quite make sense that a digital version of something would sell out, as it is not constrained by the materials needed for physical copies, but it was clarified that Square Enix ran out of unique codes for the games, resulting in the shortage. At the time, it was also impossible to create new characters for players who already owned the game.
Final Fantasy 14‘s sell-out was unexpected, but the popularity that caused it is not. The game recently broke its own record on Steam for concurrent players, beating out 41,000 with 47,000. Part of the reason why it is so high in demand right now is that it is currently hosting Free Login Campaign from July 9 to August 23, for players that had previously been inactive. New benchmark software for the Endwalker expansion was released July 11, in preparation for the expansion itself that will launch on November 23. This Endwalker Expansion is being billed as the final chapter in the Final Fantasy 14 story. The game even maintained its own 14-hour stream on July 9 for all of the news. With all these elements combined (and news of an incoming cookbook), it is no wonder that Square Enix was unprepared for the spike of players and activity it experienced earlier.