Path of Exile's latest expansion – Echoes of the Atlas – seems to be an instant success, pulling in a peak player count well over 250,000. That number propelled it to the fourth most-played game on Steam and broke its previous concurrent player record.
"Echoes of the Atlas has been Path of Exile's most successful expansion so far," said Chris Wilson, co-founder of Grinding Gear Games. "We are so pleased to still be setting new player number records after over 30 quarterly league releases since 2013. It shows us that our development methodologies are evolving in the right direction as we work towards completing Path of Exile 2."
When Echoes of the Atlas debuted, almost 300,000 players tuned in to its livestream. Then, when it finally launched this week, 265,250 concurrent players swamped its servers, putting up numbers 11% higher than the Delirium expansion last March. No doubt the game is on the right track, and it'll be exciting to watch the numbers jump around as we progress through the season.
Path of Exile has a strong Twitch presence as well, with a current viewer count of nearly 50,000, surpassing hit titles such as Hearthstone, Hitman 3, and Genshin Impact. Twitch can play a big role in a game's success – look no further than the renewed interest in Rust for a prime example of its power.
Echoes of the Atlas brought a laundry list of new content to Path of Exile. New bosses, new maps, and even new forms of currency were all introduced, giving veteran players plenty of reasons to dive back into the ARPG. Many players see it as the true Diablo 2 successor, as several of the faces that worked on the iconic dungeon crawler are also involved with Path of Exile.
Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas is now available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. The game is also playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and a next-gen update is planned to release in the future.