Path of Exile 2's player retention foretells tremendous success

Modified Jan 08, 2025 14:49 IST

explore the player retention of path of exile 2 — Path of Exile 2 is on the right path (Image via GGG)

It's been over a month since Path of Exile 2's Early Access release, and the game continues to retain half its playerbase. This estimation is based on the player numbers on Steam, where the game holds over 250k daily peak player count. While the console player numbers aren't verifiable, it should be on par—especially given how well-implemented the controller experience is.

It's not a glass half-full way of looking at things to say that retaining as many players as it did, Path of Exile 2's future looks even brighter than one would have initially estimated.

Note: Parts of this article are based on the author's opinion.

Sky is the limit for Path of Exile 2 with explosive success in its debut month

The game is doing quite well (Image via SteamDB)

Looking at it from another perspective, one could argue that 50% of the playerbase has dropped the game. When put into a wider ARPG perspective, that is indeed a resounding success. For reference, the first game's player count reached its peak last year with the release of the Settlers of Kalguur league. At the release of this league, it was nearly 230k players on Steam alone.

Settlers of Kalguur brought game-changing mechanics with settlement building an a bypass economy with currency exchange, so it took longer for the dust to settle than most other seasonal updates. Yet, a month later, the player count on Steam had dropped to about 70k on August 26, 2024, exactly a month after its release.

It is commonplace for a modern ARPG to drop almost all of its players a couple weeks into a seasonal update, because that is how the content structure for its live-service model is planned. On the other hand, Path of Exile 2 is still a fresh game, so is this a fair comparison?

While the dynamics are different with a fresh release and a seasonal update, we can still say with confidence that the player retention on Path of Exile 2 is better than one would have hoped.

We can factor two points into the argument. First and foremost, Path of Exile 2 isn't quite out of the oven yet. Three more campaign Acts are yet to come, and Act 3 itself has been scruitinized for overtuning specific enemies and giant maps. Regardless, the existing content is the perfect embryo for the most robust ARPG campaign since Grim Dawn.

Secondly, the state of endgame tuning and tumultuous player market economy makes for quite a rough post-campaign experience. With Citadels being so rare that it spawns conspiracy theories, pinnacle content gated behind exorbitant grind, and a series of week-one nerfs bricking player builds with no free respec recourse, Path of Exile 2 has braved some rough seas in its launch month. Despite all the praise, the pre-holiday state of the endgame is arguably the worst it can be.

There is, of course, the argument to be made for the current state of Increased Item Rarity (IIR). Enterprising playerse may be judiciously grinding away overtime before a nerf on the stat which is, frankly, long overdue. Yet, this hypothetical group of top 1% players doesn't represent the majority of Path of Exie 2 playerbase, casual or dedicated.

The fact of the matter is that the baseline innovation Path of Exile 2 makes with its approach to combat pacing and difficulty makes for highly engaging gameplay. As Creative Director Jonathan Rogers menitoned in an interview with Zizaran,

"Good combat involves some level of challenge."

If there was any initial question regarding how the difficulty could ward off players, the answer is an unequivocal no.

With its incredibly high playerbase retention, the road to Path of Exile 2's (and GGG's) future is paved with success, and it only gets better from here on out.

Check out our other guides on the game:

Edited by Angad Sharma