Path of Exile Records Activity Spike on Steam Thanks to Numerous Novelties
The warmly received Affliction expansion has caused a renaissance in Path of Exile's popularity on Steam.
Path of Exile, the free-to-play action RPG from Grinding Gear Games, has visibly revived on Steam.
- Yesterday, in the hottest moment of the day PoE was being played on Steam by 144,193 people simultaneously, a Friday the activity record was 167,593 players.
- By comparison, a week ago the weekend activity record was about 15,000 concurrent players on Steam.
- This sudden jump in popularity is due to the release of a major new update, which introduced a free expansion to the game, titled Affliction.
- Among other things, the expansion offers a new challenge league, enabling us to visit the Viridian Wild Forest, which faces a mysterious contamination. A sizable set of previously unavailable items has also been added, and a transfigurable gem system and three new Ascendancy classes have been implemented. The much-loved Ultimatum mechanic - Vaal's deadly challenges commissioned by Chaos' servant, the Trialmaster - has also returned. As part of it it, the greater the risks we take during the trials, the potentially better rewards we will receive.
It should be added that Affliction did not result in setting a new overall activity record. That still amounts to 211,000 concurrent players, achieved eight months ago by the Crucible expansion. However, the success of the latest expansion shows the excellent condition of the game, which is all the more impressive given that we are talking about a title that celebrated its tenth birthday this October.
Recall that Path of Exile is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, while Xbox Series S/X and PS5 owners can also play the game thanks to backward compatibility. The title uses a free-to-play model with microtransactions.
