Final Fantasy Free April Downloads Officially Unveiled By Square Enix

3 days ago 6

Final Fantasy 14's Kefka points forward with both his index fingers as he clutches his hands together.

Published Apr 20, 2026, 11:09 AM EDT

Bruno Yonezawa is a Gaming Senior Writer for Screen Rant. He's been practicing professional journalism for over 10 years, and is also a communications specialist. He's played games all his life and turned that passionate hobby into a passionate career, in an industry where he's worked as a writer, editor, analyst, and more.

Final Fantasy is getting new free downloads in April, as was announced by Square Enix, and you may not want to miss out on the limited opportunity to grab them. The classic RPG franchise is constantly evolving with the arrival of new core games, spin-offs, merch, and much more. FF16 was the latest main entry in the series, but there is still a lot arriving before the release of Final Fantasy 17; indeed, the game has not even been officially announced as of now.

Final Fantasy Fans, Mark Your Calendars

FFXIV Players Will Get Freebies In April

Yoshi-P smiles and waves a sword while wearing a Viper cosplay from Final Fantasy 14.

According to the report, Square Enix will celebrate the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest 2026 between April 24 and April 26. As part of the celebration, fans of the MMORPG will be able to get exclusive FFXIV-centered Twitch chat badges entirely for free. During the period, if you watch an official Square Enix Twitch stream for the event for an hour, you’ll get the Main Scenario Quest Chat Badge.

The second free download is a Fat Cat Chat Badge. This reward will be gifted to players who watch any FFXIV category stream for an hour. These are the first set of rewards for players in April, as there are more rewards planned for future iterations of the Fan Fest in Europe and Japan, in July and October, respectively. Granted, this set of freebies is not a new Final Fantasy game like Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy, released in March, but it keeps the franchise active.

Final Fantasy 14 Is Still Going Strong

The MMORPG Has Issues That Square Enix Is Addressing

Characters wearing New Armor Sets in FFXIV.

The critically acclaimed MMORPG has seen something of a tough period after the release of the Dawntrail expansion and its post-MSQ content. There has been a decline in FFXIV in both the number of players and quality of content – something that has been openly acknowledged by Square Enix and the game director, Naoki Yoshida (also known as Yoshi-P).

Even so, there has been a push to improve the situation, and in some aspects, the company has been doing the right things, especially regarding end-game content. The new Raids and other activities have been giving players a lot to do, and FFXIV has been carrying a lot of Square Enix’s game division.

The upcoming Fan Fest will likely serve as a stage for Square Enix to present the upcoming content for the MMORPG and how it is tackling what has weakened the game in the past years. While it’s still unclear whether or not it will work, it seems like the company is keen on making this online Final Fantasy game work, even after the extraordinary narrative conclusion brought forth with Endwalker.