After launching with great expectations, Path of Exile 2 is experiencing a deep crisis. Almost a year after its release in early access, the Grinding Gear Games title has lost a significant portion of its active users on Steam and is already lagging behind its predecessor.
According to SteamDB, the first Path of Exile, released 12 years ago, has over 115,000 concurrent players today, while the sequel reached about 20,000 at peak times, almost a sixth of the original.
This is surprising, considering that Path of Exile 2 gathered 578,000 concurrent players at launch. But the lack of content and slow pace of development have gradually alienated the community. After patch 0.3, which added the fourth act and temporarily raised the number of players to 300,000, the game lost its audience again. Since then, the decline has continued.
But Path of Exile 1 remains popular. The Keepers of the Flame update, released on October 31, increased players from 10,000 to over 185,000 in the first days after release. The large-scale and high-quality expansion showed that the original still offers deep content and a stable game structure.
Path of Exile 2 is still in early access and has a chance to regain the trust of fans, but development needs to be accelerated. The community notes the need for new acts, improved balance and gameplay diversity. According to the latest estimates, the full version is unlikely to be released in 2025, with patch 0.4 not expected until 2026.
