Path of Exile 2 received a huge update last week – Return of the Ancients. That, combined with the action RPG going free-to-play over the weekend to celebrate, has seen the sequel hit its highest number of players since it entered early access 18 months ago.
Path Of Exile 2 Hits Over 400,000 Concurrent Players On Steam During Free Weekend
Turns out quite a few of you are waiting for an excuse to get back into Path of Exile 2. Hundreds of thousands of you, like at the peak of your free weekend, 421,000 of you have played it on Steam alone, according to SteamDB. The free weekend was also available on Xbox where, although the numbers won't be as high as on Steam, I think quite a few of you played it too.
Path Of Exile 2: Cross-Play and Cross-Save, explained
Here we cover everything you need to know about crossplay, cross-progression and more in Path of Exile 2.
The number of Path of Exile 2 players peaks with each major update. There were three before this one, all of which managed to get players back into the game. However, none of them had the impact that Return of the Ancients had. For the first time, the game has had over 400,000 concurrent players since launch, attracting over half a million.
Aside from the usual suspects, Counter-Strike et al, Path of Exile 2 was the most played game on Steam over the weekend.
Luring players back is easy, convincing them to stay is the hard part
Although the fact that it's free attracted so many of you to either return to PoE 2 or try it out for the first time, the update itself was substantial. The hope is that players will stick with the game rather than leave it again after the free weekend and wait for Early Access to end before returning again.
Return of the Ancients introduces new storylines, reworked endgame systems, and a build tracker for novice players to follow in an effort to make the game more accessible to newcomers. Its Steam reviews remain mostly positive, so I can only assume that the update went down well with the many, many people who tried it out over the weekend.
If you want to continue playing PoE 2 or are hearing about its free weekend for the first time, we have good news. Although you can no longer play it for free, until June 12, the discount will be 50 percent. This gives you access to everything released so far, including Return of the Ancients. If you'd rather wait for its full 1.0 release, when PoE 2 will be free for everyone, you can, but there's still no firm release date. Grinding Gear Games is still aiming for 2026.
- Released
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December 6, 2024
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and gore, Nudity, Intense violence, Sexual themes, Language, User interaction, In-game purchases (includes random items)
- Developers
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Gear grinding games
- Publishers
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Gear grinding games
