Final Fantasy XIV: 691 accounts sanctioned in one week — and the button that actually silences gil sellers

Square Enix published its penalty report for the week of August 20 to 26 in Final Fantasy XIV on Thursday, August 27, 2026. The total: 691 accounts affected, including 616 permanent bans.

This kind of announcement is usually skimmed. Yet it contains two pieces of information useful to any player: the exact breakdown of reasons, which shows where the problem really lies, and above all the reporting path that produces an immediate effect — one that most players don't use, because they go through the other one instead.

The numbers, reason by reason

A footnote in the announcement prevents a misreading: "The use of third-party programs by RMT sellers has been included under 'Participation in RMT/prohibited activities.'" In other words, the botting line only concerns ordinary players — not gil farms, which are counted elsewhere.

What this breakdown tells us

Three lessons stand out, and they are more interesting than the total.

• RMT dwarfs everything else. On its own, together with website promotion, it accounts for 606 of the 616 permanent bans, or 98.4%. The real issue isn't combat cheating: it's the economy.
• Selling or buying gil is treated as irreversible. Of 487 accounts penalized for RMT, 486 were permanently banned and only one temporarily. There is no first chance.
• Using a third-party program, on the other hand, allows some leeway. This is the only category where temporary bans dominate — 74 suspensions versus 10 permanent bans. Square Enix does adjust based on severity, but not when it comes to RMT.

The two reporting paths — and why they don't serve the same purpose

The announcement gives two, in two separate paragraphs. The difference between them is crucial and isn't spelled out in bold anywhere.

1. General reporting, handled by a human

For illicit behavior in the broad sense — cheating, bug exploitation, harassment:

[System Menu] → [Support Desk] → [Contact Us] → [Report Cheating]

This is the full path, the one that results in a case file. It's suited to anything that requires review.

2. RMT reporting, handled automatically

For advertising of gil-selling websites — the repeated messages flooding chat in major cities — the game offers a second, much quicker path:

Right-click on the character's name from the log window → [Report] → [Report RMT Activity]

And here is the sentence that changes everything:

“The report will be processed automatically, and if determined to fall under RMT advertising, the reported character’s comments will be restricted.”

This particular path doesn't go through a human moderator. It feeds an automated process that, once the threshold is reached, cuts off the reported character's speech — without waiting for the weekly report, without waiting for a permanent ban. It's the only tool in the game that has a short-term effect on the spam you see in Limsa Lominsa.

In practical terms: if you come across an RMT spammer, don't go through the System menu. Right-clicking in the log is faster, and it's the one that triggers the automatic sanction.

The line that targets honest players

One paragraph of the statement doesn't talk about sellers or cheaters, but about players who discover a problem:

"Players who have discovered a cheating method must not, under any circumstances, exploit it or share such information. Instead, we ask that you report it to us."

Both verbs matter equally. Spreading the method — in a Free Company, on a Discord, in a video — is placed on the same level as exploiting it. A player who has never used an exploit themselves can therefore fall under the "other illicit activities" category simply for explaining it. This is also, let's remember, the category that shows 486 permanent bans for a single temporary suspension.

Why buying gil is the worst gamble in the game

The statement reiterates the framework: RMT "disrupts the game's overall balance" and is "prohibited under the User Agreement". Beyond the principle, this week's statistic is enough to settle the economic question:

• the probability of escaping punishment is not known, but the nature of the punishment is: permanent ban in 486 cases out of 487;
• a permanent ban takes away the entire account: characters, mounts, housing, cash shop purchases, and the ongoing subscription;
• and Square Enix concludes unambiguously: "We will continue to take action against accounts involved in the selling of gil and other fraudulent activities."

Key takeaways

• 691 accounts sanctioned from August 20 to 26, including 616 permanently.
• 98.4% of permanent bans relate to RMT or the RMT advertising.
• For a spammer: right-click in the log → [Report] → [Report RMT Activity]. It's the only report that is processed automatically, and it can cut off the character's chat.
• For everything else: [System Menu] → [Support Desk] → [Contact Us] → [Report Cheating].
• Sharing a cheating method is punished just as severely as using it.