The State of Path of Exile : Heist Edition
With the arrival of the Heist league, and Path of Exile 2.0 lingering in the distance, I began to wonder, is Path of Exile still going strong after dominating the ARPG market for nearly 8 years? or has it become a waning star ready to collapse?
This post below by u/HarbingerofElitism is a comedic example of the often vitriolic vibe you can encounter in r/pathofexile. Some times fairly, some times unfairly. And if you listened to some of the users, the game is ruined. But is it really?
Lets look at the numbers instead! Cold. Hard. Data!
Path of Exile Steam Chart Stats (These are not indicative of the entire player-base, as not everyone who plays the game plays on steam, but from these numbers we can extrapolate player-base trends)
Path of Exile Player-base 2013-2015
The Decline (A typical Game Cycle)
The earliest data that steam charts has is from October 2013, where Path of Exile hit a peak of 34,371 active players, with an average of 19,346.
Between October 2013 and June of 2015 Path of Exile would slowly bleed its player base all the way down to a peak of 6,689 and an average of 4,302 (June 2015).
But would it get worse?
Path of Exile Player-base 2015-2019
On the Rise, Defeating the odds.
In July 2015 Path of Exile would jump back up above an average of 13,529 players and a peak of 32,284 thanks to the Perandus League for the first time since 2013. This would mark the beginning of the road to growth.
It climb wouldn’t be straight up, but the overall trajectory would be undeniable due to the overwhelming success of leagues such as
- Perandus League in March of 2016
- Avg: 16k Peak: 37k
- Breach League in December of 2016
- Avg: 23K Peak 46k
- Legacy League in March of 2017
- Avg: 28K Peak 65K
- Harbinger League in July of 2017
- Avg: 46K Peak of 98K
- Abyss League in December of 2017
- Avg: 30k Peak 70K
After peaking during the Harbinger leagues, POE would continue to draw great numbers of players in each league, until once again exploding in popularity during the Betrayal League in December of 2018 where it would reach Peak viewership of 123,462 and an average of 51,321.
Path of Exile Player-base 2019-2020
2020, for all its problems, has been a great year for Path of Exile, reaching around 120,000 peak players or more for every league so far! Heist League has already seen a peak of over 120,000 concurrent players on day one and could easily beat that over the weekend.
What was Path of Exile’s best performing league?
When did path of exile hit its highest peak ever? That would be March 2020 during the contentious Delirium League at a peak concurrent playersbase of 132,508 players.
What was Path of Exile’s Worst Performing League?
Path of Exile’s worst performing league was the Torment / Bloodlines League in December of 2014 hitting an average of just 6,500 players that month and peaking at only 13,689.
Is Path of Exile Dying?
No, not at all. Path of Exile is having the best year of its life, similar to many of the years preceding. Grinding Gear Games has set the bar for ARPGs almost impossibly high, and it will be fascinating to see what happens to the size of the player-base when Path of Exile 2.0 is launched in 2021.
See all of the stats referenced in this article here https://steamcharts.com/app/238960
Chris is a scientific mystery, capable of surviving days and even weeks without consuming anything but video game news and coffee. He is passionate about sharing everything he learns about past, present, and future video game titles with anyone who will listen!