With Blight, the new league in the hack ‘n slash Path of Exile has started. However, the new expansion doesn’t seem to be catching on properly. The player numbers on Steam are not rising as high as they did with the last new leagues.
What is Blight? The new league Blight introduces a tower defense-like mode. A mushroom monster is spreading, and it is your task to protect NPC Sister Cassia’s pump. The monster must be stopped using turrets.
Additionally, there are daily master missions that you can complete later, a second skill bar, revisions of some classes, and much more.
Blight with fewer player numbers on Steam than Legion
What do the player numbers say about Blight? Blight has of course led to an increase in player numbers on Steam, as many fans want to check out the new league.
However, Steamcharts shows that this increase is not as strong as what has been experienced at the launch of a new league before.
At the launch of Legion, nearly 100,000 players were simultaneously playing the hack ‘n slash, according to Steamcharts. This was followed by a decline in player numbers until on September 5, only about 7,800 fans were simultaneously active.
The release of Blight on September 6 again led to an increase, but only reached about 74,600 players. And now it’s declining again. Currently (as of September 9, 9:30 AM) only about 26,500 players are online at the same time.
It should be noted that these are only the Steam numbers. Players who are playing Path of Exile on PS4 and Xbox One are not included.
Fans search for reasons for the lower player numbers
What are the reasons for the player numbers? Fans of Path of Exile are speculating, for example, on Reddit about why the current league has significantly fewer players:
- Some believe that World of Warcraft Classic is to blame because many are now playing WoW and no longer have time for Path of Exile.
- Others report massive performance and login problems since the league started.
- Still others believe that a tower defense game is simply not their cup of tea. Furthermore, there are supposed to be bugs and balancing issues in the new mode.
There are also players who say that they simply don’t feel like leveling through all acts from scratch with each league.
However, many fans of Path of Exile are having fun with Blight and are pleased with the new mode and the adjustments. The reasons why the new league is not being received well seem to be more diverse.
