Path Of Exile 3.26 Atlas Expansion: Will It Bring The Much-Anticipated Content?

It’s worth the wait! The developers of two major MMOs have finally released the next league update for Path of Exile, which they released more than a decade ago. The very stable league update cycle has been the core of the developers’ marketing of Path of Exile and attracting a wider audience over time.

In fact, they have done a great job so far, especially POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League, which has attracted the most concurrent players on Steam. However, it must be noted that this league has been running for nearly ten months, and even though it has excellent game content, players are gradually getting tired of it.

So when the developers finally announced that they would provide a new league for the original game, all players were excited and said that they would finally turn their attention back to the firstborn, because this is the first time that the update window has been so long since the league system was first introduced in 2013.

According to the developers, Path of Exile 3.26 will have the theme Secrets of the Atlas and will be officially released on June 13th. In fact, when the name of this league appeared, many players were wondering whether this update would bring the long-awaited Atlas Expansion into the game?

The specific content of this new league requires you to participate in GGG Live, which will start at 1 pm on June 5, so we can only guess that it will be introduced one by one, after all, now is the best time to launch this expansion. If you are interested in it, then follow this guide to find out!

The Importance Of 3.26

As we all know, this developer announced that it would release a sequel with a completely different game style from the original in 2022, nearly 10 years after the release of Path of Exile. But unfortunately, this slogan has been shouted from 2022 to 2024. It was even announced that the official release of the early access version in November 2024 was delayed to December because of micro-transaction issues.

During this process, many players who wanted to try new game content were fooled and gradually lost confidence in exploring POE 2. However, thanks to its long-term marketing, the sequel set a record for the number of concurrent online players on many gaming platforms as soon as it was released.

In view of this, the developers assigned all the staff who should have worked on the original game to update the sequel, forcing Path of Exile to be robbed of a lot of attention by its sequel. However, as the negative reviews of POE 2 0.2.0 patch increased, the developers paid more and more attention to the development of the sequel and ignored the need to update the league in the original game, even though a new event was launched during the period.

So in this case, where the players of both games have not been completely pleased, the developers can prove through the latest league update in Path of Exile 3.26 that many of their promises to players are entirely true. Among them, introducing this Atlas-focused expansion into the game would probably be the easiest to accomplish.

Why Is Atlas The Key To This Expansion?

It is worth affirming that the developers really want to make some substantial changes in this POE 3.26 update to satisfy the players. Whether it is to add in-game mechanisms or change some gameplay, it is very effective. But why is it speculated here that the focus of this new expansion is Atlas map?

First of all, no matter which game manufacturer, developing and releasing a new expansion that includes the entire game content is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task. For Path of Exile, most developers and innovators are still developing POE 2, and the in-game resources are not enough to support the development of this type of expansion.

And as the end of POE 2’s early access is getting closer, players are more and more eager to have a game with a similar gameplay style and new things to explore as a replacement after it exits the game world. Therefore, if POE 3.26 really brings an excellent expansion of the Atlas map, players of the original and sequel can enjoy a smooth gaming experience.

Another reason is to think from the developer’s perspective. This Atlas Expansion is sure to bring players so many interesting and challenging boss encounters, maps, and ways to farm POE Currency that players may explore it for months and gradually forget about the official release of the sequel.

This could give the developers some time to polish POE 2 so that they can provide a long-polished and perhaps successful sequel to the players who still love this dark game in a few years, or even longer. Not only that, during this polishing process, the developers can still make a high profit from the original game with a large player base.

Of course, this is just my unilateral speculation, and the specifics may need to wait for the developer to admit it. But who will admit it? In addition, from the trailer released by the developer for POE 3.26, Atlas and its secrets are mentioned many times, which is a very clumsy way of leaking.

In general, no matter how high the developers’ expectations are for POE 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas, most players are still waiting to see. Although there is a lot of discussion in the player community and on social platforms about whether a prefect Atlas Expansion will be released in this update, the final information still needs to be learned from the live broadcast next month. I wish you a happy game!