Best ARPGs battle it out .
route of Exile ’s Legacy of Phrecia consequence brought a record phone number of players back , considering it was only an effect and not a new league . It brought so many players back that it toppled Path of Exile 2 ’s concurrent players on Steam at launching .
route of Exile peaked at 91,948 concurrent player on Legacy of Phrecia ’s event launching , while Path of Exile 2 had 80,879 coincidental player at that sentence . PoE 2 ’s co-occurrent count did n’t get at all with the PoE Legacy of Phrecia event , so where did these participant come from ?

While PoE 1 might never break PoE 2 ’s bill , it is still shocking that PoE 1 managed to overtake PoE 2 ’s concurrent players , even for a poor time . There are many reasons for that , and we ’ll surely see something like this happening in the future tense again .
Path of Exile 1’s Longest Content Drought
way of Exile has systematically released massive content updates as new league around four time a class . With their Path of Exile 2 early access draw near its release , they had to use their Edgar Allan Poe 1 team to work on PoE 2 to make the early access launching carry suave .
This is the first time lag for patch 3.26 , which would be the conference after Settlers of Kalguur . After the vacation , they addressed a few more result they need to correct in PoE 2 and announced they ’ll still be using the PoE 1 team to do work on PoE 2 until patch 0.2.0 arrives .
This angered most PoE 1 player because Grinding Gear Games has always been uniform and transparent with the residential area , and this was the first time they let anybody down in a massive mode .

Image via Grinding Gear Games
It has been seven calendar month since Settlers of Kalguur was released , and no new conference was in sight . At this point , histrion were n’t expecting 3.26 to come soon since they knew no one was working on PoE 1 until PoE 2 ’s 0.2.0 maculation move live .
It has been the tenacious PoE drouth , and role player are hunger . A few day after the declaration , they issue theLegacy of Phrecia eventtease with a post about what will come .
To propitiate the players , they will release a 1 - month consequence that all shatter all the current family and put back them with fresh game - changing ascendancies .

Image via Grinding Gear Games
All 19 ascendancies were wholly reworked , which come out of nowhere . Basically , the team has been working on these experimental design and scrapped the one-time ones .
Why Path of Exile 1 Didn’t Reduce Path of Exile 2’s Concurrent Players
While both games might be in the same music genre and have the same unique systems , they are still miles asunder . Path of Exile 1 has decades of update and calibre - of - life history upgrades that a fresh title could n’t trip up up to regarding content depth in such a short span .
No ARPG comes close to Path of Exile ’s depth and spirit level blueprint , but Path of Exile 2 was still the closest to it . It is confusing why PoE 2 ’s endgame fell flat since they had much of the same data point from the first title to find what player wanted .
This caused strife among players as most PoE 1 players loathed PoE 2 ’s endgame . While they are hopeful that things will improve and PoE 2 has a lot of electric potential , it does n’t give the same energy Edgar Allan Poe 1 gives player when run endgame content .

Image via Grinding Gear Games
Path of Exile 2 had a astonishing number of players , get hold of 578,562 concurrent player at one point . However , that human body crash to 50,000 to 150,000 in the last month alone . While the pickpocket in players is normal for any game , Path of Exile is a dissimilar strain of game .
One of Path of Exile ’s most telling exploit is its ability to retain player for a significantly long clip than other game . Settlers of Kalguur reach 228,398 coinciding players on July 1 , 2024 , PoE 1 ’s current all - time peak . At the close of July 2024 , it reached 163,118 simultaneous player . While other league might not have the same holding , it was still close .
PoE 2 had amazing retention but was not even close in equivalence to PoE 1 . However , it is voiceless to compare since PoE 2 had a continuous inflow of players throughout the first calendar month of other admission , being a new secret plan . It had a luck of raw players , particularly newcomers to the ARPG musical style . This should ’ve helped the retention numbers , but they still fell shortsighted compared to PoE 1 .

Image via Grinding Gear Games
It looks clear as Clarence Shepard Day Jr. that a big radical of player who loved PoE1 render for the event , but most of them were n’t a lover of PoE 2 ’s endgame . Popular depicted object creators like Zizaran , Ben , Kripparian , Mathil1 , and others have voiced their concern about PoE 2 ’s endgame , and most correspond that PoE 1 is presently right smart well .
However , many participant still love PoE 2 , and it ’ll be interesting to see if its content can capture the love of all Edgar Allan Poe 1 veterans once again . From day one , they clearly desire their player to keep switching between PoE1 and PoE2 season so they do n’t run out of content . Currently , they are still way away from that .