Path of Exile 2 was one of the most anticipated games on the market, as evidenced by the high interest in Steam.
It’s a sequel to the Diablo III competitor that came out in 2013 and showed that action RPGs can still be hardcore and win the love of millions of fans worldwide. Grinding Gear Games opened early access to the game on Friday night, and the project achieved impressive results. On Friday, more than 300,000 players were on the servers simultaneously, and on Sunday, the number reached 578,569 players.
We wrote more about this game in What is Path of Exile 2? Everything You Need to Know About the Upcoming ARPG.
This is a high result even when compared to the fresh, conditionally free-to-play shooters Marvel Rivals and Delta Force from major Asian publishers, which had 480,990 and 118,964 concurrent players, respectively. Path of Exile 2 exceeded the first Path of Exile peak by more than 250% and left Diablo IV, which had only 55,000 players on Steam at its peak, far behind.
At the moment, the novelty has mostly positive reviews—82%. Many users noted they spent an “unforgettable time” trying to get into the game. The servers could not cope with the enormous wave of players, and the developers had to close access to the game to fix the problems temporarily.
In the meantime, the first reviews from the gaming media have arrived. IGN columnist highlighted the gameplay and the elaborate ending. And this is even though three acts out of six are available on Early Access:
Everything from the refined fundamental action-RPG gameplay to the surprisingly fleshed-out endgame has seen major improvements, and the half of the story we’ve got so far shows plenty of promise, even if the setting feels a little generic in the realm of dark fantasy worlds. The downside of playing in early access, though, is that you’ll have to slog through all three acts twice to reach the endgame, the loot game needs some major tweaking to more consistently reward us with usable items, and some mild-to-severe technical wonkiness might take the wind out of your sails if things go awry – but it’s nothing that makes me concerned for the future of this expansive sequel.
In early reviews, some players are talking about the death of Diablo 4, and there are enough bold comments about “game of the year“. However, we should remember that this is just the beginning because the full-fledged release with all the twists will take place only next year. The full Path of Exile 2 will be free-to-play and released in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S.
