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Path of Exile
You are an Exile, struggling to survive on the dark continent of Wraeclast, as you fight to earn power that will allow you to exact your revenge against those who wronged you. Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in a dark fantasy world. The game is completely free and will never be pay-to-win.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “deep, flexible character-build systems” (64 of 101 reviews) and “abundant campaign and endgame content” (19); the most common complaint is “steep, poorly explained learning curve” (37). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-10-22 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-09.
What reviewers agree on
64 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“When I decided, a month ago, to play Path of Exile, I was reading a novel, and I wanted a game that I could play without paying attention to anything and just press buttons and have things explode on screen, and I’m…”
“It's like having sex with a fire hydrant. You don't know how to do it, but its enjoyable regardless.”
“I liked the game. It's a f***ing huge passive skill tree, I can do whatever I want. A very large number of classes, and each is unique in its own way. For beginners, I advise looking for a build, and only then starting…”
19 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“IMO I like POE 2 better, but there appears to be way way more to do in endgame - though be prepared for tutorials because I have zero clue what I'm doing and it hurts”
“Tried getting into PoE 2 when it came out. It was good but felt like it was missing something. PoE 1, however, doesn't feel like that at all. It is very fleshed out, well made, has a ton of content, and building and…”
“Amazing if you like ARPGs. Game is a pretty big timesink, given that there are a lot of mechanics to understand and a lot of different things to learn to actually reach endgame. I really like it, gives me a feeling of…”
12 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Tried getting into PoE 2 when it came out. It was good but felt like it was missing something. PoE 1, however, doesn't feel like that at all. It is very fleshed out, well made, has a ton of content, and building and…”
“Amazing if you like ARPGs. Game is a pretty big timesink, given that there are a lot of mechanics to understand and a lot of different things to learn to actually reach endgame. I really like it, gives me a feeling of…”
“while i'm not heavily educated in mmorpg's, I found PoE to be very fun. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys constantly increasing their avatar's abilities. it's a near endless stream.”
11 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“This game is addictive, I used to not understand how people could spend 7-10 thousand hours on some titles on Steam, now I understand... “Survive, Exile… if you can.””
“Definitely a Diablo killer! The gameplay is many times more hardcore and diverse! Here, the skill tree allows you to constantly experiment, which ultimately gives the game replayability! Also, constant content updates!…”
“Indescribably peak to an extent that is unfathomable to the human mind. I'm actually terrified of how much more time I'll be sinking into this game.”
11 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Bear in mind this game is better than Diablo, it's beautiful and, unlike Diablo, it's evolving - that's the main advantage. The guys are working on the game while Blizzard is drawing new wings.”
“The game is really good. It took developers about 12 years to add an in-game market, so they do listen”
“Game is fun, there are many builds to do. I don't think its that optimized? I know i have a potato, but even friends with good pc's lag. Gameplay is awesome you can play how you want. Button masher, walking simulator,…”
37 of the 101 reviews raise this · 33 of them still recommend the game.
“When I decided, a month ago, to play Path of Exile, I was reading a novel, and I wanted a game that I could play without paying attention to anything and just press buttons and have things explode on screen, and I’m…”
“It's like having sex with a fire hydrant. You don't know how to do it, but its enjoyable regardless.”
“IMO I like POE 2 better, but there appears to be way way more to do in endgame - though be prepared for tutorials because I have zero clue what I'm doing and it hurts”
8 of the 101 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“Game is fun, there are many builds to do. I don't think its that optimized? I know i have a potato, but even friends with good pc's lag. Gameplay is awesome you can play how you want. Button masher, walking simulator,…”
“A masterpiece! The only downside is the inexplicably high PC performance requirements. Warframe doesn't lag as much as this game, although the graphics are strikingly different, not in PoE's favor.”
“Positive: - Very addicting - Lots of loot - Many (almost infinite) ways to build your character - Various mechanisms to get loot/good to suit your style - Many quality of life in the UI - Friendly community Negative -…”
8 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“The vast amount of skilltrees and items kinda forces you to take a guide (if you are not willing to read up on vast amounts of skills, items, interactions and mechanics). Speaking as someone who just wants to play the…”
“The game should have been called "Trash Loot Sorting Simulator" EXTREMELY beginner UNfriendly Only worth playing because of sunk cost fallacy for people with 1000+ hours -- Literally unplayable without downloading…”
“An ARPG that has lost its very essence in lottery like mechanics. An addiction specialist could write a few PhD's on this worthless lotto machine.”
5 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Played for thousand of hours. getting banned out of nowhere and said using 3rd app, the fact that I dont use any 3rd app at all and send an apeal, got rejected, and lost all my skin and stash purchase throughout my time…”
“Don't waste your time like I did. PoE is so weird. On one hand, it's one of the most in-depths and satisfying "to understand and execute" games i've ever played. On the other hand the devs have a golden rule, stated…”
“Path of Exile is currently the best ARPG on the market. The undisputed best game in the genre. Only flaw of this game is the inconsistent update schedule. This is an unfortunate side effect of having Jonathan Rogers in…”
5 of the 101 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“One of my fav games of all time uwu Not very optimized for potatoe-PCs and the leagues are not staying there forever (with my characters that I liked) but besides that - I loved it! Best luck to developer on this…”
“good game but really all people told me a lot of things as a returned player, tho i think poe 1 not my interest anyomore, i played in epic games about 50 hrs and 20 hrs in Xbox, yes this a little hrs in this game but…”
“It's ok. The biggest warning that SHOULD be put here are that some game aspects will forever be tied to the character that first used them. I tried playing for a while. Now that I understand the game I tried deleting…”
Counted across 101 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 89.1% positive rating · as of 2026-05-09
“I have around 2000 hours in Path of Exile. At this point, I’m not playing a game—I’m maintaining a long-term toxic relationship. You don’t install this game. You invite it into your life. It sits there quietly at first… then slowly consumes your free time, your sleep schedule,…”
— a player, Steam review · 1,406 hrs played“I wish I was good at this game but my brain just shuts off trying to understand anything in this game. Not the game fault though. I'm just stupid. Completely braindead. Even if I follow a build, I just can't understand it. I'm just braindead. It sucks since the game is good but…”
— a player, Steam review · 57 hrs played“This is one of the best games I've ever played and the best ARPG game in the market right now. This game has SO MUCH content that is relevant, fun and rewarding. There's tons of builds that fit different class fantasies (very important to me). The progression of your "account"…”
— a player, Steam review · 625 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
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From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-09.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Indie, Massively Multiplayer, RPG, Free To Play |
| Player tags | Free to Play · Dark Fantasy · Action RPG · Hack and Slash · Loot · MMORPG · Multiplayer · Dungeon Crawler · Isometric · Character Customization · RPG · Online Co-Op (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · MMO · PvP · Online PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · Steam Achievements |
| Languages | English * , Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Thai, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 127 |
| Official site | http://www.pathofexile.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows 10 Processor: Quad core 2.6GHz x86-compatible Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 650 Ti or ATI Radeon™ HD 7850 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 40 GB available space