Why Did The Number Of Players In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access Drop Sharply?
Although Path Of Exile 2 Early Access attracted a large number of players with its grand scale at the beginning of its release, the redistribution of currency during the game and the boring ending were criticized and complained, causing the game to lose a large number of players, and most players chose the original Path Of Exile again.
The Number Of Original Players Surged
In January, the number of players of POE 2 at its peak was as high as 350,000, while the number of players of the original POE was only more than 13,000, which was a far cry from the original. However, at the time of writing this article, the number of players of the two was only more than 9,000, which means that in the past time, the number of players of POE 1 has continued to surge, while the number of players of POE 2 has continued to decline.
The Reason Why Path Of Exile 2 Lost A Large Number Of Players
The reason why POE 2 lost a large number of players includes not only the dissatisfaction of players, but more importantly, the original POE held a new event-Legacy of Phrecia event, which greatly attracted the speculation and attention of players.
The reason for this event is that the developers want to relieve the original game players from having nothing to do while waiting for the POE 1 update.
In this event, when players reach a certain level, they will be rewarded with different items according to the player level, especially players above level 80 can get all four items of the armor set. Moreover, this event adds a lot of new content around idols, such as allowing players to combine idols, get idols through gambling, and earn POE 2 Divine Orbs by selling these idols, etc. These add a lot of fun to the players and better retain many players.
In addition, the event will also introduce 19 new Ascendancies, and the previous Ascendancy class will be replaced. So players can quickly upgrade by learning new skills and strategies during the game and investing in your equipment. Both new and old players need to quickly adapt to these mechanisms to get a better gaming experience, but this event is short-lived and extremely stimulating, so players are more inclined to invest in the original POE.
Chris Wilson Was Not Involved In Development And Creation Of POE 2
In addition, recent rumors about the departure of key members of the original POE development team may have also laid the fuse for the sharp decline in the number of online players in POE 2 and the emergence of a large number of bugs.
Even though Chris Wilson is a member of Grinding Gear Games and participated in the development of the original game, he did not participate in the production of POE 2, but still focused on the original POE. This led to Chris Wilson making timely statements when relevant problems occurred in the original POE to appease the players' psychology, which accumulated a large number of players for the original POE.
At present, we have no idea whether the number of players in Path Of Exile 2 will continue to decline, but if POE 2 is to be released before May, relevant measures need to be taken immediately to retain the number of players.
As a game developer, you should always pay attention to all aspects of the game. When the number of players decreases and players complain collectively, you need to find reasons from multiple aspects to improve the player experience.
