Summer may be over, and most gamers are heading back to work or school, but not Path of Exile 2 fans. They’ve had no time to slow down, as Grinding Gear Games dropped The Third Edict at the end of August, the largest patch in the game’s history. Packed with sweeping changes and fresh content, the update drew massive attention from both players and streamers, propelling Path of Exile 2 to the very top of Twitch’s most popular games list.
The Third Edict launched on Friday, August 29, marking the biggest update yet for Path of Exile 2. It introduces new campaign content, the game’s first major league, and long-requested features such as asynchronous trading. Full details on the update are available on the official Path of Exile 2 website.
To celebrate the launch of The Third Edict, the developers made Path of Exile 2 free-to-play from August 29 to September 1. Unsurprisingly, this gave the game an extra boost in livestreaming popularity. In August, Path of Exile 2 hit its second-highest peak on Twitch of 4.5K active channels — the only time it was higher was during the game’s launch in December 2024.
On August 29, The Third Edict launch day, Path of Exile 2 racked up over 1.98 million Hours Watched on Twitch. That total was enough to surpass long-time chart leaders like League of Legends, Grand Theft Auto V, and Counter-Strike.
The Third Edict - Day 1 viewership on Twitch
Path of Exile 2 wasn’t just the most-watched game on Twitch on patch day, it drew over 401.6K Peak Viewers, the highest concurrent viewership of any gaming category. The launch of The Third Edict drew the attention of many top Twitch streamers, including Zack “zackrawrr” Hoyt (aka Asmongold), Saqib Ali “LIRIK” Zahid, Quintin “Quin69” Crawford, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, Ben “CohhCarnage” Cassell, and several other big names.
Most of their streams featured special Twitch Drops, giving viewers a chance to earn exclusive in-game items for Path of Exile 2. Players can earn special rewards by watching game streams or subscribing to their favorite streamers. The promotion runs from August 29 to September 14. For more details about the rewards, check out the video.
The new update helped Path of Exile 2 not only climb to the top of Twitch’s gaming categories but also stay there for an entire week. Few new game releases manage to hold the spotlight that long — let alone a patch.
The Third Edict - Week 1 viewership on Twitch
In its first week, Path of Exile 2 pulled in over 14.5 million Hours Watched on Twitch — more than any other game on the platform. Average viewership actually increased as well: from around 84.7K on launch day to 98.1K over the course of the week. That kind of growth is rare, since most games peak on release day and then quickly lose viewers.
Most popular PoE2 streamers
The top Path of Exile 2 streamer last week was Australian Quin69, racking up nearly 885K Hours Watched. Among female streamers, ds_lily led the pack with 97.4K hours and ranked 28th overall across all streamers. However, the most-popular single stream was zackrawrr’s launch broadcast, which peaked at 50.1K concurrent viewers.
Streams Charts keeps a close eye on trends across top Twitch categories (and other platforms). You can stay on top of all the latest game releases with our upcoming releases chart.
