The massive gap between Party Play and Solo Play is hurting player retention this season

Hi everyone, and hopefully GGG,

I am a veteran player of both PoE 1 and PoE 2. I love this game, but I’ve noticed a concerning trend in the current PoE 2 season: player retention is dropping fast. Many of my friends and people in my circle have already quit the league.

The main reason? The overwhelming imbalance between Party Play (specifically organized groups) and Solo Play.

Here is why this is negatively impacting the game for the majority of players:

1. Organized Groups "Break" the Loot Balance The loot multipliers for full parties feel excessive. It creates a perception that these groups are draining the value out of the league. For a solo player, seeing the sheer volume of loot that drops for groups makes personal gameplay feel unrewarding by comparison.

2. Economic Inflation Hurts Solo Players Large groups flood the market with raw currency and high-tier items. This causes massive inflation and devalues currency (like Divine Orbs) rapidly. Solo players, who cannot match this farming efficiency, see their purchasing power vanish. It becomes nearly impossible for a solo player to grind for upgrades when the market prices are dictated by 6-man party income.

3. The "FOMO" and Psychological Impact It feels terrible to know that running the exact same map in a group yields dozens or even hundreds of times the profit compared to running it solo. This disparity creates a strong sense of unfairness and kills the motivation to log in and grind.

My Constructive Suggestions: I don't want to kill group play, but it needs to be balanced so it doesn't destroy the economy for everyone else.

Cap Loot Bonuses: The Quantity/Rarity bonus for groups should be capped at a modest level (e.g., around 50%). Whether you are in a party of 2 or 6, the raw loot explosion shouldn't scale infinitely.

Shift Incentives to XP or Gold: To keep group play rewarding, give parties significant bonuses to Experience or Gold instead of raw drops. This encourages playing together for leveling and utility without wrecking the trade economy.

I sincerely hope GGG considers this. A balanced economy where solo players can still thrive is crucial for the longevity of Path of Exile 2.

I and my friends tried party play last night for the first time, it was really crazy, we used like random maps and tablets, and got 10x drops from our normal solo play. just imagine those with good maps and efficient farming strategy , they could rake in divs like crazy every map.

-69
Seems like a you issue
1. Well just don’t see it and no problem then?
2. Have you tried playing 12h a day? Group play have to dedicate their time too bruh
3. There’s SSF for weak mind players bruh

Maybe party ppl should play separate trade league. SC solo and SC party.

This can save SC solo from inflation.

That's not the reason why retention isn't very good.

Bugs, bad performance (not everyone tho), crashes, annoying 1 shots, current league not super interesting (abyss was much better, still is) are the reasons (among others) why people are not staying. Also it's been 2 weeks so the normal drop out is also expected.

+1

Many people just wave this away as a non-issue, but it's very clearly an issue, and anyone who has ever actually seen a party play juiced mapping experience knows this. Splitting the rewards isn't an adequate rebuttal because the rewards, even when split, often massively exceed what 99% of solo players can make.

Yes, a solo player who is a very top end player will make more, but that only applies to the ~1%, and it doesn't take the equivalent bottom ~1% of groups to make that same amount of currency. It's way easier as a group to make currency as opposed to an average solo player, and it's a massive issue.

I've been playing since day one, and I don't think I've ever seen the economy in a dire state so fast off update release. It's pushed me to not want to play.

Its definetely the issue. Maybe GGG should claim the game as a MMORPG lol?

Yes, this is an obvious real problem that must be fixed. The number of people who are just find leechers in the general chat only confirms this. Many players don’t realize the issue until someone in the party throws a ring that shows the amount of currency looted. You have 1/50 of what that player has. Even during the first week of the league I saw people showing 30,000 ex, 12,000 chaos, 1,500 Divine Orbs, 240 orb for 5 soced gem, and 1 mirror, and other many stuff like t0 drops. I have ever farmed that much in all my PoE history.

+1
Just wrote this on another thread, very similar topic, gonna copy and paste but same thoughts apply, just not typing out another paragraph xD

zoom zoomers always get their ways, they are clearly always right and thats clearly the only way to effectiveley play and enjoy the game like come on xD Sarcasm aside theres been nothing but plea after plea, and their doing nothing but splitting this community even more, adding in so many combos and ways to use these skills when zoom zoomers will always find 1 skill to use to do everything and any mechanic they can abuse, other players who want a more toned down slower experience and harder/more challening experience like what this game was advertised as by GGG directly, are clearly just wrong in all their opinions and don't get POE (sarcasm)
At this point why the heck did they even feel the need to make POE2 rather then overhauling POE1, Chris Wilson had a different vision in mind for POE2, with the route they are taking the game rn, All they should have done is focus on updating POE1's engine/graphics to fit todays standards, and keep everything else how it was and just keep building on it?
Instead lets market a new game, gain a whole new audience, Market is as something that alot of people were into, then completley switch course and change those aspects that drove in this new audience, and split this community in half!!!!!
GG GGG!

this game is doomed xD

Have never been done with a season in 1 week, usually atleast a month-2 for me, at this point, nothing new to see, new class was just a let down all gear dependant late game and that late game is all a casino sim.

Sure, some guranteed ways to farm certain items just no gurantee they'll ever drop as its all rng, no different then a casino, just relies on your dopamine not engaging combat, more players more rarity yet only one gets that OP drop.

The only way to see drops at this point in time is using a broken build with broken items and zooming through maps, and these players think that is a fun experience, 1% of this community gets to have/see that experience, with each new season less and less players, after 1-2 months, typical player count is about 10-15k on steam, 550k players on launch, of that 550k players they attracted, only 2-3% stay for the long haul.... thats not how MMO's survive...

If you do finally see that drop as a solo, you will never see that drop multiple times a season unless your doing group play or only farming that specific boss/map for the entire season, its really not possible to compete in the seasons and economy as a solo, you need other players to see drops at a good pace, 1 spellcaster can have 5 people in their party while not needing those 5 players to do shit because the classes are so unbalanced 1 person can clear enemies and a boss HP scaled to 6 players...... and zoom zoomers are like JUST US HAVE FUN WAH WAH WAH, go play poe1, for solo's why not buff SSF to appeal to both crowds? Oh cause it still pisses off zoom zoomers and makes them demand change to them buffing SSF defeats the entire experience and makes whole game pointless

regret buying supporter packs, 0.1 sold me, now they've massacred my boy :(

I like challenge, have beat all dark souls, dopamine isn't what kept me goimg, it was the world itself, the environment the different locations the enemies in those locations exploring and suddenly coming across a boss and your like oh crap.... you wanna see what lies beyond you want to keep exploring thats what drives you to kill that boss, not chasing items that will never drop
You get a boss soul and you simply trade it in :) but nooo buffing drops or adding in ways to target farm would ruin game wah wah (sarcasm) no it wouldn't if it was only SSF, but they will never be able to please both sides

Playing solo, run 2 maps, 1 divine drops.
You get 1 divine.

Playing 5 man, run same 2 maps, 4 divine drops.
You get 0 divine. Because the loot is shared and those 4 went to the other 4 players.

Group play has to drop substantially more than solo in order for group play to not be substantially worse than playing solo.
One would expect a 5 man group to need 5x as much loot to drop to be balanced with solo play.

The real problem, of course, is parties that exist to funnel all the loot into one person, instead of splitting it.
That's where most of the mentality of groups being so much better is coming from.
Not from seeing the loot that goes to groups, but from solo players getting all of the loot that should have been for a group.

Perhaps the math right now on the extra loot in groups is imperfect, but even if the math was perfect, funnel parties are still the real problem that needs solving.