The fifth expansion for Final Fantasy 14 launches in July but players who have pre-ordered the game can get early access to Dawntrail starting this Friday, June 28.

Final Fantasy 14 early access to Dawntrail starts this later this week, following a 48-hour server maintenance window at which point players that pre-ordered can jump in. There are a number of other requisites if you want to partake in Dawntrail early access, but pre-ordering the expansion is the main one. There's also an extra step involved if you're playing on Windows, Mac, and Steam, but players on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S don't have to worry about that. They just need to tick off the basics.

First thing's first: Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail early access kicks off this Friday, June 28 at around 10am BST / 5am EDT / 2am PDT. It's Square Enix that's added the 'around' caveat, presumably to cover its butt in case maintenance takes longer than anticipated. So if you can't get in right away, check the server status before panicking. The expansion launches fully on Tuesday, July 2, but early access actually ends on Friday, July 5 at 11.59pm of the region your Square Enix account is set. Note that for Europe, the publisher cites GMT which is the same as UTC, so we've gone ahead and used that. UK players might get confused otherwise, given we're in BST for the summer!

  • North America: 11.59pm PDT
  • Europe: 11.59pm UTC
  • Japan: 11.59pm JST

That's Saturday, July 6 at 12.59am BST / 2.59am EDT for those on the east coast in the US and here in the UK.

How to play Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail early access

To get Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail early access, you need to meet the following requirements as outlined on the official support site:

  • You must have an active Final Fantasy 14 Service Account on the Square Enix Account
  • You must have a recurring subscription or remaining subscription days on the Mog Station
  • You must have pre-ordered Dawntrail on the platform that it will be played on
  • If you're on Windows/Mac/Steam, you must have registered the Dawntrail pre-order Bonus Code

So PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players won't get the second code highlighted in the last point. So long as you meet the requirements laid out in the first three bullets, you'll be automatically registered for early access and the full version upon purchasing the expansion.

If you're on PC (Windows/ Mac/ Steam) things are a bit more complicated. You'll received two codes – one for Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail early access, and one for the full expansion. The early access code will work from Friday, June 28 and will stop working on Friday, July 5. The code for the full expansion will not work before the official launch date and time, resulting in an 'invalid code' error if you try to register it prior to this. You can input it at Mog Station from launch day.