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Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 is an action role-playing game by Grinding Gear Games of Auckland, New Zealand, the sequel to Path of Exile, in paid Early Access on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S since Dec 6, 2024.[^4][^3] As of Nov 7, 2026 it is at version 0.5.5; version 1.0, set for Dec 11, 2026, makes it free to play and adds Acts 5 and 6, the Duelist and Shadow classes and the Conquerors of Wraeclast league.[^17][^2][^1]

The Duelist in action on the 1.0 build GGG's deep dive of Aug 27, 2026: a sword-wielding Duelist fights undead in the ruined Grand Arena while game director Jonathan Rogers explains how its stances change each attack. The class becomes playable on Dec 11, 2026.

Overview

Path of Exile 2 is an action role-playing game developed and published by Grinding Gear Games (GGG), a studio in Auckland, New Zealand.[3][11] It is the sequel to the studio's Path of Exile, with a new story set 20 years after the defeat of Kitava in the first game.[22] A player chooses a class, fights through a campaign of acts and then moves to an endgame of linked, randomly populated maps, building the character through skill gems, a passive skill tree and items.[23][22] The game entered paid Early Access on Dec 6, 2024 on PC, through GGG's own client, Steam and the Epic Games Store, and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.[4] As of Nov 7, 2026 it is still in Early Access, at version 0.5.5, whose Forbidden Rites event league opened on Sep 4, 2026.[17] Its full release, version 1.0, is set for Dec 11, 2026 (PST), when the game becomes free to play.[2][3]

The Duelist in action on the 1.0 build GGG's deep dive of Aug 27, 2026: a sword-wielding Duelist fights undead in the ruined Grand Arena while game director Jonathan Rogers explains how its stances change each attack. The class becomes playable on Dec 11, 2026.

Developer and publisher
Grinding Gear Games, Auckland, New Zealand (owned by Tencent)[3][11]
Game directors
Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts[30]
Platforms
Windows PC (standalone client, Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S[4]
Early Access
Since Dec 6, 2024 (paid)[4][3]
Current version
0.5.5, the Forbidden Rites event league[17]
Full release (1.0)
Dec 11, 2026 (PST), free to play; not yet out[2][3]
Classes
8 playable; the Duelist and the Shadow at 1.0; 12 planned[28][1]
Steam all-time peak
578,569 concurrent players, Dec 8, 2024[21]
Critics
OpenCritic Top Critic Average 88 (19 reviews)[13]

Development

GGG announced Path of Exile 2 at ExileCon 2019 in Auckland, not as a separate game but as a new campaign inside Path of Exile that would share the original's endgame.[22][6] In the keynote, the studio said a true sequel would split its community and start as a bare campaign without years of expansion content, and it promised that microtransactions and stash tabs already bought would work in either campaign.[22] The same presentation showed the change that survived every later plan: skill gems carry their own sockets for support gems, so every skill can be fully supported instead of one or two.[22]

The 2019 plan: a new campaign, not a sequel The ExileCon 2019 keynote explains why Path of Exile 2 was first planned as a second campaign inside the original game, sharing its endgame, with past purchases usable in both.

That plan was reversed at ExileCon 2023, held on Jul 28 and 29, 2023, where GGG made Path of Exile 2 a standalone game with its own client, endgame, balance and leagues and set a closed beta for Jun 7, 2024.[6] At the event's question session, co-founder Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts introduced themselves as the game's two directors.[30][11] Asked when the split became necessary, a developer said it was soon after the Act 2 reveal: design changes such as the dodge roll made it feel like a different game, and converting the original would have taken away too much that its players liked.[30]

Why the sequel became its own game At the ExileCon 2023 question session, a developer recalls realizing after the Act 2 reveal that the new design no longer felt like the same game, and compares players who prefer the old version to those of World of Warcraft Classic.

Gameplay

Classes start from different points of a shared passive skill tree and specialize further through Ascendancy classes.[3][23] At the Early Access launch, six of the twelve planned classes and three of the six planned acts were playable.[28] The sequel also changed how characters move and fight. Rogers said in 2023 that he had surprised his own team by proposing WASD movement alongside the series' click to move, and every character can dodge roll.[29] A developer explained that the roll began as a way to cancel slower skills, and that because players can always roll, bosses can be designed so that every attack is avoidable.[29] Rogers described the depth of character options as unchanged from the first game while socketing and other technical chores were made simpler.[29]

Why every character can dodge roll A developer in PC Gamer's 2023 documentary explains that the dodge roll lets players get out of slow skills and lets bosses be balanced around attacks that can always be avoided.

Endgame and leagues

After the campaign comes the Atlas, an endless map that spreads in all directions from a Vaal temple called the Ziggurat.[23] A player powers its portal device with a Waystone, whose tier sets the monsters' level, and travels to areas next to ones already completed.[23] Like its predecessor, the game runs in leagues: each major update opens a new league with its own mechanic, in which characters start again from level 1, along with new endgame content, a new pinnacle boss and new skills.[26] The endgame was rebuilt in Return of the Ancients on May 29, 2026, which reset Atlas progress and the Atlas passive tree and moved the Temple of Atziri from an earlier league into the core game.[16]

The Atlas, the endgame map GGG's reveal before Early Access introduces the Atlas: an infinite map around the Ziggurat, where Waystones power the portal device and set the level of each map's monsters.

Early Access and updates

Access during Early Access required a key, sold in supporter packs or given free to players who had spent at least $480 on Path of Exile on one platform, and GGG said it expected the period to last "at least 6 months".[4] On launch day it reported more than 1 million Early Access redemptions, a figure that includes those free keys.[5] A few months before launch, GGG had moved its whole team from finishing Acts 4 to 6 to building the endgame, reasoning that three acts already took a new player about 25 hours.[23] Dawn of the Hunt, the first major update, added the Huntress on Apr 4, 2025.[8] The Third Edict added Act 4 on Aug 29, 2025, with the game's first free weekend.[14] The Last of the Druids added the shapeshifting Druid on Dec 12, 2025.[15] Revealing Return of the Ancients, GGG called it the biggest update it had made for either game and said it would be the last full-size league of Early Access.[24]

The last full-size league of Early Access Closing the Return of the Ancients reveal of May 7, 2026, GGG calls it its biggest update for either game, says the endgame is now up to scratch, and announces that the next big update will be 1.0.

An event league, Forbidden Rites (0.5.5), followed on Sep 4, 2026.[17] GGG said it had planned a much larger balance pass for that patch but could not finish it alongside the 1.0 work, so all of it was moved to 1.0.[25] In August 2026 Rogers told PCGamesN that the studio "had a lot of arrogance about how long we thought it would take", and that the endgame reached the state he wanted only a year and a half into Early Access.[12]

Full release

GGG announced on Aug 25, 2026 that Path of Exile 2 would launch as a fully free-to-play game on Dec 11, 2026 (PST), introducing the Duelist.[2] At ExileCon 2026, in a keynote streamed on Nov 6, 2026 (PST), it revealed the rest of version 1.0.[1][19] Acts 5 and 6 complete a six-act campaign, with 24 new areas, 18 new unique bosses and more than 20 Champion Rare encounters.[1] The Shadow fights with daggers and traps and brings a new Stealth mechanic, with the Assassin and the Infiltrator as its Ascendancy classes.[1] The Duelist is a swordsman built around stances, with the Knight and the Master-at-Arms as its Ascendancy classes.[1] Early press reports of the keynote gave other names for the second Ascendancy of each class, such as the Weapon Master and the Saboteur.[19] The launch league, Conquerors of Wraeclast, has players recruit troops, besiege castles and join one of three factions that compete for castles across the league.[1] GGG also listed more than 40 new unique items, more than 70 reworked ones, a remade passive tree, and reworks of the Mercenary, Infernalist, Blood Mage and Acolyte of Chayula.[1] PCGamesN reported that Act 5 returns to Oriath and that the Atlas passive tree shrinks to about 70 nodes.[18]

None of this is playable as of Nov 7, 2026.[1][3] The live game is the Early Access build, with eight classes (the six launch classes, the Huntress and the Druid) and four acts, and it still needs a supporter pack until Dec 11.[28][8][15][14][2] With the Duelist and the Shadow, 1.0 brings ten of the twelve planned classes; the remaining two have no announced date.[28][1] Early Access characters are not deleted at launch: GGG said they move to a separate league called Early Access.[4]

Business model and platforms

The full game will be free to play, and GGG funds it through a store of microtransactions and stash tabs shared with Path of Exile, from which nearly all earlier purchases carry over.[28][2] AngryJoe's review noted that the $30 Early Access pack already bought most of the stash tabs a player needs, and called the store mostly reasonable so far.[28] Gameranx called the first game's model about the best that could be hoped for, since a player could easily avoid spending anything, and said GGG had promised the sequel's store would be largely the same.[31] The game runs on Windows PC through GGG's standalone client, Steam and the Epic Games Store, and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; GGG said at the Early Access launch that it would not be available on macOS.[4] After 1.0, Rogers told IGN, the game will follow the first game's rhythm of a new update every four months.[26]

Life after 1.0: an update every four months At gamescom 2026, Rogers tells IGN that most of 1.0 will be shown at ExileCon and that afterward Path of Exile 2 will get a new league every four months, as Path of Exile has over around 50 expansions.

Reception and players

Critics received Early Access well. IGN's review of December 2024 found it already shaping up to be the sequel fans had waited for, with a surprisingly fleshed-out endgame, though players had to play the three acts twice to reach it and the loot needed work.[27] OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 88 from 19 reviews, all of which recommend it (read Nov 7, 2026).[13] AngryJoe scored the Early Access period 8 out of 10.[28] On Steam, English-language user reviews were Mostly Positive, 77% of 98,205, on Nov 7, 2026.[3]

IGN's Early Access verdict IGN's review concludes that Early Access is already shaping up to be the sequel players waited for and a clear leap forward for the series, while noting the repeated acts, loot tuning and technical problems.

Player numbers rise with each update and fall between them. On Steam, SteamDB recorded an all-time peak of 578,569 concurrent players on Dec 8, 2024, then daily peaks of 246,345 on Apr 6, 2025 with Dawn of the Hunt, 353,657 on Aug 31, 2025 with The Third Edict, 290,305 on Dec 12, 2025 with The Last of the Druids, 421,596 on May 31, 2026 with Return of the Ancients, and 147,624 on Sep 4, 2026 with Forbidden Rites.[21] At 05:30 UTC on Nov 7, 2026, Steam counted 9,310 people playing.[20] These counts leave out the standalone client, the Epic Games Store and consoles.[21][4]

Controversies

Dawn of the Hunt drew the strongest backlash. Its rebalancing made the campaign feel slow and overtuned, and Mark Roberts admitted "blatant" mistakes, saying the minion change "was just bad".[8] Steam's recent reviews fell to Mostly Negative by Apr 10, 2025, after more than 2,300 negative reviews on Apr 7 alone.[9] Months earlier, on Jan 30, 2025, Rogers had delayed Path of Exile's next league without a date because developers had been moved from it to the sequel, whose endgame "was not in a shippable state"; he said he was "really sorry".[7] The endgame overhaul planned for The Last of the Druids also slipped to the next update.[15] Co-founder Chris Wilson ceased to be managing director on Jan 21, 2025, according to a Companies Office filing that GGG did not announce, and he did not co-direct the sequel.[10]

Grinding Gear Games

Chris Wilson, Jonathan Rogers and Erik Olofsson founded Grinding Gear Games in 2006; Olofsson left in 2022.[11] Tencent bought an 88% stake in 2018 and has since bought the founders' remaining shares, making it the sole owner.[11] The New Zealand Herald reported revenue of $105.2 million and a net profit of $38.6 million for the year to Sep 30, 2024.[11] Rogers, now chief executive, said in July 2025 that the studio had over 240 staff in New Zealand, up from 180 in April 2024.[11] Wilson founded a new studio, Light Pattern, after leaving.[11] GGG keeps running both games: the first game's next expansion, Covens of Umbra, was announced at the same ExileCon for Nov 13, 2026.[19]

Timeline

  1. Path of Exile 2 is announced at ExileCon 2019 as a new campaign for Path of Exile.[22]
  2. At ExileCon 2023 it becomes a standalone game.[6]
  3. Paid Early Access opens on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.[4]
  4. Steam's all-time peak of 578,569 concurrent players.[21]
  5. Dawn of the Hunt adds the Huntress.[8]
  6. The Third Edict adds Act 4 and a free weekend.[14]
  7. The Last of the Druids adds the Druid.[15]
  8. Return of the Ancients rebuilds the endgame.[16]
  9. GGG sets the free-to-play full release for Dec 11, 2026.[2]
  10. Forbidden Rites (0.5.5), the last event league before 1.0, begins.[17]
  11. ExileCon 2026 reveals Acts 5 and 6, the Shadow and Conquerors of Wraeclast.[1]
  12. Scheduled full release (1.0), free to play.[2]

What we think

This section is Heartipedia’s own opinion, not sourced fact. Each view is reasoned from the facts cited above and from trends we see; it may turn out wrong. A prediction’s words are never changed once made: when the facts are known we add the result under it, right or wrong. Every prediction we have made.

A new Steam record in launch week

We expect Path of Exile 2 to pass its all-time Steam peak of 578,569 concurrent players within a week of its free 1.0 launch on Dec 11, 2026.

Why: That peak came on Dec 8, 2024, when the game was a paid Early Access test with six classes and three acts, and Return of the Ancients still drew 421,596 on May 31, 2026 to a paid game. 1.0 removes the price on every platform and adds two acts, two classes and a new league at once, the largest single update the game has had.

Prediction Confidence: Likely Check by: Dec 2026 Made

An eleventh class in the first league after 1.0

We expect the first major update after the full release to add an eleventh class, one of the two still missing from the twelve GGG planned. We think it arrives in spring 2027, on the four-month rhythm Jonathan Rogers described.

Why: Every full-size Early Access update except Return of the Ancients brought a class (the Huntress, then the Druid), and 1.0 brings two more. With ten of twelve in the game, a new class is the strongest headline GGG has for the league that must keep the players a free launch brings in.

Prediction Confidence: Possible Check by: May 2027 Made

The castle war gets cut back

We expect Conquerors of Wraeclast's shared faction war over castles to be the most criticized part of the full release, and GGG to scale it back or make it optional in a patch within six weeks of launch.

Why: It asks players of a game about building one character to manage troops, castles and a faction across the whole league, a bigger departure than any earlier league. GGG has changed course fast under pressure before: after the Dawn of the Hunt backlash its director admitted mistakes within days.

Prediction Confidence: Possible Check by: Jan 2027 Made

Path of Exile 2 on Nintendo Switch 2

Our prediction is that GGG announces a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Path of Exile 2 before the end of 2027.

Why: The game has been on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S since the first day of Early Access, so it already plays on a controller, and from Dec 11 it is free, earning from every new player a platform brings rather than from a box price. The Switch 2 is the one current console it has not reached; the long shot is the weaker hardware.

Prediction Confidence: Long shot Check by: Dec 2027 Made

The split was right; Dawn of the Hunt was the real mistake

We think GGG's best decision was making Path of Exile 2 its own game in 2023, and that its worst was Dawn of the Hunt, not the long delays.

Why: The 2019 plan would have tied the new campaign to the old game's endgame and balance, and the dodge roll and socketed skill gems needed a game built around them. The delays cost Path of Exile a league but kept players waiting, while Dawn of the Hunt's nerfs cost GGG the goodwill of its first update: Steam's recent reviews turned Mostly Negative in days.

Opinion Made

What others predict

Predictions made on video by creators, experts or the subject of this page, in their words, each linked at the second it is said. The one line after each is our view. When the facts are known we add the result, right or wrong.

Fubgun: free to play makes playing several accounts at once worse

Fubgun , at 31:18 Check by: Apr 2027

"And this will also get drastically worse once the game does come out in freeto play in December." (YouTube's automatic captions)

Our view: We think he is right, because a free second account removes the only cost of taking the bonus currency a party earns, and we expect GGG to cut that bonus within a league or two of 1.0.

Moments

  1. The Duelist in action on the 1.0 build GGG's deep dive of Aug 27, 2026: a sword-wielding Duelist fights undead in the ruined Grand Arena while game director Jonathan Rogers explains how its stances change each attack. The class becomes playable on Dec 11, 2026.
  2. The 2019 plan: a new campaign, not a sequel The ExileCon 2019 keynote explains why Path of Exile 2 was first planned as a second campaign inside the original game, sharing its endgame, with past purchases usable in both.
  3. Why the sequel became its own game At the ExileCon 2023 question session, a developer recalls realizing after the Act 2 reveal that the new design no longer felt like the same game, and compares players who prefer the old version to those of World of Warcraft Classic.
  4. Why every character can dodge roll A developer in PC Gamer's 2023 documentary explains that the dodge roll lets players get out of slow skills and lets bosses be balanced around attacks that can always be avoided.
  5. The Atlas, the endgame map GGG's reveal before Early Access introduces the Atlas: an infinite map around the Ziggurat, where Waystones power the portal device and set the level of each map's monsters.
  6. The last full-size league of Early Access Closing the Return of the Ancients reveal of May 7, 2026, GGG calls it its biggest update for either game, says the endgame is now up to scratch, and announces that the next big update will be 1.0.
  7. Life after 1.0: an update every four months At gamescom 2026, Rogers tells IGN that most of 1.0 will be shown at ExileCon and that afterward Path of Exile 2 will get a new league every four months, as Path of Exile has over around 50 expansions.
  8. IGN's Early Access verdict IGN's review concludes that Early Access is already shaping up to be the sequel players waited for and a clear leap forward for the series, while noting the repeated acts, loot tuning and technical problems.

References

  1. Path of Exile 2 Full Release on December 11 PST, Grinding Gear Games, 2026-11-06primary
  2. Path of Exile 2 launches as a fully free-to-play action RPG on December 11, Grinding Gear Games, 2026-08-25primary
  3. Path of Exile 2 on Steam, Valve, 2026-11-07primary
  4. Path of Exile 2 Early Access FAQ, Grinding Gear Games, 2024-11-21primary
  5. Path of Exile 2 Paid Early Access Sees Over 500,000 Concurrent Players on Steam, Over 1 Million Early Access Redemptions, MP1st, 2024-12-07press
  6. ExileCon 2023: Path of Exile 2 is now a standalone sequel, closed beta coming June 2024, MMORPG.com, 2023-07-28press
  7. Path of Exile 1's next league delayed after Grinding Gear Games admits it overcommitted on Path of Exile 2's development, MMORPG.com, 2025-01-30press
  8. Path of Exile 2 nerfs and the Dawn of the Hunt patch, Kotaku, 2025-04-09press
  9. Why Path of Exile 2 Is Getting Negative Reviews, Game Rant, 2025-04-10press
  10. Grinding Gear co-founder Chris Wilson quietly departed Path of Exile dev, Game Developer, 2025-02-19press
  11. West Auckland's Grinding Gear Games, maker of Path of Exile, reports $105m revenue, CEO leaves for new venture, The New Zealand Herald, 2025-07-28press
  12. Path of Exile 2's director admits, 'We had a lot of arrogance about how long we thought it would take', PCGamesN, 2026-08-29press
  13. Path of Exile 2, OpenCritic, 2026-11-07press
  14. Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict Launches Soon, Grinding Gear Games, 2025-08-29primary
  15. Path of Exile 2 devs didn't make it. New class and league are ready, but big endgame changes will have to wait, Gamepressure, 2025-12-05press
  16. Return of the Ancients FAQ, Grinding Gear Games, 2026-05-11primary
  17. Forbidden Rites: the 0.5.5 event league, Grinding Gear Games, 2026-08-28primary
  18. Path of Exile 2's 1.0 launch brings two new classes, the campaign finale, and a full strategy game league mechanic, PCGamesN, 2026-11-06press
  19. ExileCon 2026 Announces Path of Exile 2 Full Release and New Path of Exile League, MMORPG.com, 2026-11-06press
  20. Current players for app 2694490 (Steam Web API), read at 05:30 UTC, Valve, 2026-11-07primary
  21. Path of Exile 2 charts (daily peaks, read Oct 22, 2026), SteamDB, 2026-10-22primary
  22. Path of Exile 2 Announcement Keynote, ExileCon 2019, GameSpot, 2019-11-16press
  23. Path of Exile 2: Endgame Content Reveal, Grinding Gear Games, 2024-11-21primary
  24. Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients Content Reveal, Grinding Gear Games, 2026-05-07primary
  25. Path of Exile 2: Duelist Deep Dive and 0.5.5 Event League, Grinding Gear Games, 2026-08-27primary
  26. The Duelist is the Perfect Class for Path of Exile 2 1.0, gamescom 2026, IGN, 2026-08-30press
  27. Path of Exile 2 Early Access Review, IGN, 2024-12-10press
  28. Path of Exile 2: Rapid Fire Review, AngryJoeShow, 2025-01-02press
  29. Path of Exile 2: PC Gaming Show documentary, PC Gamer, 2023-12-15press
  30. ExileCon 2023: Path of Exile 2 Q&A, Grinding Gear Games, 2023-07-29primary
  31. Path of Exile 2: Before You Buy, gameranx, 2024-12-06press

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About this page

Drafted by
claude-opus-5-5 on 2026-11-07T06:00:00Z
Checked by
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Reviewed by
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Status
Published and revised continuously; this version is the one described here.
Published
7 November 2026
Last updated
7 November 2026, see what changed
Sources
No Wikipedia source; the sources are listed above.
License
Text CC BY-SA 4.0; embedded videos and thumbnails remain their uploaders’ property, shown under YouTube’s Terms of Service; quotations excluded. Details

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