"Echoes of the Atlas," a wild new expansion to "Path of Exile" that transforms the endgame into a sprawling interdimensional fight club, caused the biggest wave of players to log into the game since its launch in 2013 According to SteamDB, "Path of Exile" reached its all-time peak of 157,103 concurrent players on January 15, when "Echoes of the Atlas" was released. However, this is only a fraction of the player base, and Path of Exile also has a standalone client available directly from developer Grinding Gear Games.

Many of those players have probably jumped on the new multiplayer challenge league. This Challenge League allows players to customize their gaming experience by adjusting the points they invest in Atlas itself as they fly around the multiverse. The story is a bit of a blast, but did you really think Path of Exile would stop being a blast after seven years? If you're new to Path of Exile, you might also want to try out the Ritual League content, which boosts loot and experience to get new characters into the endgame.

We re-reviewed Path of Exile back in 2018, and it has really ramped up in depth since then. The sequel, Path of Exile 2, isn't likely to be released until 2022, and Echoes of the Atlas probably won't be the last Path of Exile release; keep an eye on the Path of Exile 2 beta and post if we learn anything.