Path of Exile 2

When Path of Exile 2 launched into early access, the developers expected a solid but relatively quiet start. Instead, they were hit with a tidal wave of players, far more than they were prepared for. Despite the paywall, which usually limits early access to a smaller, dedicated crowd, hundreds of thousands showed up all at once. According to the developers, peak concurrent player numbers hit somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000. It instantly became the studio’s biggest launch ever.

That kind of attention is great, of course, but it also caused some serious headaches. The team had to start tweaking and rebalancing things immediately after launch, and those changes didn’t go over well with everyone. Some players found that their carefully built characters no longer worked the way they used to.   And we assume that you already know, but if you don't, a game like Path of Exile, where players invest dozens of hours into complex builds, that’s not a small issue.

The plan had been to treat early access as a test phase. But with numbers like that, it became clear they couldn’t just treat it as a work-in-progress anymore. From the player's perspective, it already felt like a full release. 

Patch 0.2, Dawn of the Hunt, introduces a range of updates with a focus on endgame content. A new trailer highlights several additions, including system changes and reworked mechanics designed to improve how players experience the later stages of the game. The update brings expanded content and a clearer effort to address long-standing feedback around progression and replay value.

The studio also gave a rough idea of when the official 1.0 version might land. They're aiming to launch the full version sometime this year. That’s the goal, anyway. If they can’t make that deadline, they’re giving themselves until March 2026 to get it out the door. It’s not a firm release date, but it gives fans something to look forward to without overpromising.

It’s worth noting that calling any version “final” feels a bit strange for a game like Path of Exile 2. It’s a live-service title, after all, and games in that category are constantly changing. Still, a 1.0 release would mark a major moment for the studio and for the players who’ve been following the game since its announcement.

The buzz around Dawn of the Hunt suggests the team is listening closely to the community. With more focus now on polishing the core systems and building out a stronger endgame, there’s a real chance for Path of Exile 2 to not just match the success of the original but take things even further. The road to 1.0 may have been more chaotic than planned, but it’s also proof that there’s a huge audience hungry for what the game has to offer.

How will the PoE 2 developers handle the new big patch rollout? We’ll see soon.