Path of Exile 1 remains to be broadly considered probably the greatest ARPGs of all time. Its stage of complexity permits for limitless potentialities and retains gamers hooked on enjoying Inhuman Time.
Wanting again just a few years, Path of Exile steadily elevated its participant base yearly till 2025, when its participant base started to say no. Updates and manifests are nonetheless too lengthy, however what’s inflicting this decline?
Path of Exile participant depend and participant retention over the previous 5 leagues
Most concurrent gamers for the previous 5 leagues in Path of Exile 1, based mostly on Steamdb:
- Affliction League β 167,593
- Necropolis League β 189,712
- Kalgoor League Settlers – 229,337
- Mercenary (Secrets and techniques of Atlas) League β 179,556
- Flame League Keeper β 185,970
The numbers are nonetheless enormous, with the all-time report being Settlers of Kalguur, which attracted a whopping 229,337 gamers at one time on Steam. This doesn’t embody gamers who open the sport by means of Grinding Gear Video games’ purchasers and consoles. Nevertheless, regardless of main updates akin to offline gross sales, an public sale home, class adjustments/rebalancing, and endgame adjustments, it stays considerably stagnant.
Wanting on the participant base, the sport appears fairly wholesome till you take a look at the participant retention charges for video games in every league.
As a recreation that requires gamers to log over 100 hours per league or season, participant retention is a powerful indicator of how well-received the league was. You realize issues are dangerous when a participant joins and tries out the sport, however then offers up earlier than finishing the marketing campaign act or reaching the yellow or purple map.
Final season’s Keepers of the Flame had the bottom participant retention in PoE historical past, and that was the catalyst for this entire factor, with the subsequent season developing this March. this huge change, some may argue that it is not resulting from a scarcity of content material, however somewhat participant fatigue.
Are Path of Exile gamers simply uninterested in the grind?
One would assume that in a recreation like Path of Exile, gamers simply take pleasure in farming progress, whether or not it takes 10+ hours or 200+ hours to finish a construct. Everybody desires that feeling of accomplishment.
Nevertheless, it takes a very long time to even scratch the floor of League Begin in Path of Exile. Which means ending the marketing campaign, developing with and researching a powerful preliminary recreation construct, enjoying maps to develop foreign money, researching and constructing the precise construct you wish to play, and sprucing to your coronary heart’s content material.
The primary few issues on this instance gameplay loop can already take 15-20 hours, even for the very best gamers. Think about how lengthy it takes the common individual to finish the primary few steps. Gamers have been by means of this example again and again throughout leagues and are in all probability feeling drained. Even gaming’s largest content material creators are taking breaks as of late.
The work is lengthy, however that is what makes it so pleasurable. Is it time for a change? The power to skip campaigns can also be useful.
But when the decline in participant numbers is not resulting from fatigue or poor content material high quality, do gamers merely want to maneuver away from the ARPG style, particularly when different genres are on the rise?