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?