The second official Path of Exile convention, ExileCon 2023, was held from July 28 to July 30 at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. It ended as one of the most viewed video game showcases this year, with only the conventions of major names like PlayStation and Xbox ahead of it.
The biggest news to come out of the exercise was that Path of Exile 2 would no longer be integrated as an expansion to Path of Exile 1, which was initially announced during ExileCon 2019. Instead, the sequel to Grinding Gear Games' award-winning ARPG will get its own standalone product, coming out as 'bigger and bigger.'
The ExileCon 2023 recorded 448K Peak Viewers during the first day of the broadcast, which was when the significant news mentioned above was disclosed. In what was even more good news for fans of the series, although the shared endgame and client between Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2 are gone, microtransactions will still carry over across both games, meaning any purchases made won't be rendered moot just because players want to play the new ARPG.
The event also registered 3.2 Hours Watched and 162K Average Viewers airtime of 20 hours. The most popular streamer for fans to catch up on the proceedings was Quin69, who was present at the venue and gave fans plenty of scoops and secret info to binge on and discuss. LIRIK was another content creator who was pretty popular among fans to catch up on all things related to the showcase, helping him become the second most popular individual channel.
Looking at the past year, Path of Exile was the 35th most-watched game on Twitch over the one year between July 28, 2022, and July 27, 2023. It beat out the likes of Hogwarts Legacy — which admittedly had much lesser time on air thanks to its 2023 release — and Elden Ring, which created quite a few records when it came out in early 2022.
The free online-only game was also the 34th most popular game over this period, which shows that there was a pretty stable market for it on the purple platform a decade after its release. Fans were fans only waiting for an update on the second installment, which admittedly came later than anticipated because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Diablo IV’s release at the beginning of June definitely affected its pull, though. While this Blizzard Entertainment masterpiece is the third most-watched game since then, Path of Exile’s standing has fallen into the 1580s, behind the likes of Sons of Forest, BattleBit Remastered, and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. However, with the game’s showcase happening, eyes on it also increased, as it has been the 18th most-watched game, not far behind Diablo IV itself, meaning whenever the second title is released, the hype could just be unreal.
When comparing the various video game showcases held in 2023, ExileCon 2023 joins the most-watched list. Leading this table is the Summer Game Fest 2023, which hit 4.3M HW, followed by the PlayStation Showcase 2023, with 4.1M HW, and the Xbox Games Showcase & Starfield Direct 2023, which notched 3.9M HW. Considering the pedigree of these events and the brand value they bring, Path of Exile should be pleased it was able to do this well in pulling viewers in.
It helped that this was just the second ExileCon ever held and the first in four years, meaning the anticipation among fans for more news on their beloved ARPG was high. And they were in for a treat with the news they received, with it also confirmed that the second title would get major gameplay mechanic changes and six new classes.
Fans are now salivating after finally getting their first glimpse at Path of Exile 2 since the ExileCon 2019, and if it is even half as good as the teaser suggested, the game should be a roaring success. However, there is some way to go for that, as no released timeframe was announced, although the closed beta will launch on June 7, 2024.
