The current league and the next one
The current PoE league is Allflame (version 3.29, the Curse of the Allflame expansion). It began on July 24, 2026 and, according to GGG, ends on November 9, 2026 at 1 PM Pacific time, which is 10 PM in Poland. Its mechanic is diving to the ocean floor on the ship The Sovereign with Captain Valerie.
League 3.30 is due on November 13, 2026, so there are four days between challenge leagues. Its name, mechanic and launch time are not announced. All dates and times are collected in league 3.30.
Whether the Allflame mechanic will stay in the game permanently, GGG has not said (as of October 17, 2026).
Every challenge league (newest first)
Start dates come from poewiki (UTC). Version is the patch the league launched in. The "Permanent?" column shows whether the mechanic stayed in the game: Yes, No, Removed (it existed and later disappeared) or Partly (only remnants are left).
| Version | League | Start | Mechanic | Permanent? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.29 | Allflame | Jul 24, 2026 | Diving to the ocean floor on the ship The Sovereign: Charts, Voyages, Allflame Lanterns and Ducat crafting | Ongoing |
| 3.28 | Mirage | March 6, 2026 | Freeing trapped Djinn in an astral copy of an area, three wishes from Varashta, Coins of Power, Skill and Knowledge | No |
| 3.27 | Keepers | Oct 31, 2025 | A new Breach with Ailith: Unstable Breach, Breach Hive and the Genesis Tree | Yes (as the new Breach) |
| 3.26 | Mercenaries | Jun 13, 2025 | A duel with a Trarthan Mercenary: hire him, take an item or banish him | Yes (since 3.29) |
| 3.25 | Settlers | Jul 26, 2024 | Kingsmarch: a town where you spend Gold on workers and shipments, plus the Recombinator | Yes |
| 3.24 | Necropolis | March 29, 2024 | The Lantern of Arimor previews monsters and modifiers of the next zone, corpses are used for crafting | No |
| 3.23 | Affliction | Dec 8, 2023 | The Viridian Wildwood: a portal to a forest in the dark, Sacred Wisps empower monsters | Yes |
| 3.22 | Ancestor | Aug 18, 2023 | The Trial of the Ancestors tournament: a team of warriors destroys the opponent's totems | No |
| 3.21 | Crucible | Apr 7, 2023 | The Crucible Forge: passive trees on weapons and shields, grown by killing monsters | No |
| 3.20 | Sanctum | Dec 9, 2022 | The Forbidden Sanctum: roguelike dungeons where you protect your Resolve, Relics and boons | Yes |
| 3.19 | Kalandra | Aug 19, 2022 | Mirrored Tablet and the Lake of Kalandra: building a map from tiles, Reflecting Mist gives mirrored rings and amulets | No |
| 3.18 | Sentinel | May 13, 2022 | Sentinels: constructs that empower enemies once deployed, in exchange for better loot | Yes |
| 3.17 | Archnemesis | Feb 4, 2022 | You apply Archnemesis modifiers to rares, and they pass on to further monsters | No |
| 3.16 | Scourge | Oct 22, 2021 | The Blood Crucible: a parallel demon world, The Scourge, and scourging items | No |
| 3.15 | Expedition | Jul 23, 2021 | Four Expedition NPCs, explosives uncover monsters and chests | Yes |
| 3.14 | Ultimatum | Apr 16, 2021 | The Trialmaster: up to 10 waves with rising difficulty modifiers, a reward for each wave | Yes |
| 3.13 | Ritual | Jan 15, 2021 | Ritual altars: fighting in a ring, kills earn Favour to buy items | Yes |
| 3.12 | Heist | Sep 18, 2020 | Smuggler's Cache, contracts and the Rogue Harbour: heists with hired rogues | Yes |
| 3.11 | Harvest | Jun 19, 2020 | The Sacred Grove: growing plants and killing the monsters from them, Lifeforce for Horticrafting | Yes |
| 3.10 | Delirium | March 13, 2020 | The Mirror of Delirium: a fog that spawns and empowers enemies, with a reward bar | Yes |
| 3.9 | Metamorph | Dec 13, 2019 | Organ samples from monsters combined into a powerful Metamorph boss | Removed |
| 3.8 | Blight | Sep 6, 2019 | Defending a pump against waves of monsters, Fungal Growths, Sister Cassia | Yes |
| 3.7 | Legion | Jun 7, 2019 | The Timeless Monolith wakes frozen legions, you kill within a time window and then break out monsters for rewards | Yes |
| 3.6 | Synthesis | March 8, 2019 | Memory Nexus and Fragmented Memories, the Synthesiser merges three fractured items into a synthesised item | No |
| 3.5 | Betrayal | Dec 7, 2018 | The Immortal Syndicate: syndicate members on the map, intelligence, safehouse raids, Jun Ortoi | Yes |
| 3.4 | Delve | Aug 31, 2018 | The Azurite Mine: Voltaxic Sulphite as fuel for going deeper into the mine, Niko | Yes |
| 3.3 | Incursion | Jun 1, 2018 | The Temple of Atzoatl: short visits to the temple's rooms, the Stone of Passage | Yes |
| 3.2 | Bestiary | March 2, 2018 | Capturing beasts with nets, The Menagerie, Einhar Frey | Yes |
| 3.1 | Abyss | Dec 8, 2017 | Abyssal cracks and pits with creatures, the Abyssal Trove, the Stygian Spire | Yes |
| 3.0 | Harbinger | Aug 4, 2017 | The Harbinger: a blue glowing monster with minions, mostly drops shards | Yes |
| 2.6 | Legacy | March 3, 2017 | Leaguestones: stones that add a previous league's mechanic to the next zone | Removed |
| 2.5 | Breach | Dec 2, 2016 | Timed monster-spawning portals, splinters, a Breachstone and a boss | Yes |
| 2.4 | Essence | Sep 2, 2016 | Essence crystals with trapped monsters, essences for crafting | Yes |
| 2.3 | Prophecy | Jun 3, 2016 | Navali: a Silver Coin buys a Prophecy that triggers an effect once its condition is met | Removed |
| 2.2 | Perandus | March 4, 2016 | Perandus chests with Perandus Coins to trade with Cadiro Perandus | Removed |
| 2.1 | Talisman | Dec 11, 2015 | Monsters carry Talismans, the Stone Circle combines five into a higher tier, the boss Rigwald | No |
| 2.0 | Warbands | Jul 10, 2015 | Random warbands of one of four factions in zones | Partly |
| 2.0 | Tempest | Jul 10, 2015 | A random Tempest in a zone: coloured wind circles that help or hinder | Partly |
| 1.3 | Torment | Dec 13, 2014 | Tormented Spirits: ghosts flee and empower or possess monsters, better loot | Yes |
| 1.3 | Bloodlines | Dec 13, 2014 | A modifier for magic monsters (Bloodlines) | Removed |
| 1.2 | Rampage | Aug 20, 2014 | Kill streaks: bonuses for successive kills in a short time | Partly |
| 1.2 | Beyond | Aug 20, 2014 | Red orbs after monster deaths merge into packs of Beyond demons, sometimes a boss | Yes |
| 1.1 | Ambush | March 5, 2014 | Strongboxes: chests that release groups of monsters when opened | Yes |
| 1.1 | Invasion | March 5, 2014 | Unique bosses invading zones (Invasion bosses) | Removed |
| 1.0 | Nemesis | Oct 23, 2013 | The Nemesis modifier on rare monsters | Removed |
| 1.0 | Domination | Oct 23, 2013 | Shrines: altars that buff monsters or give the player temporary bonuses | Yes |
| 0.11 | Anarchy | Jun 7, 2013 | Rogue Exiles: monsters with player looks that use player skills and drop a lot of loot | Yes |
| 0.11 | Onslaught | Jun 7, 2013 | Monsters had increased attack, cast and movement speed | No |
Dates are a day off if you check poedb, which lists them in Taiwan time. For the oldest pair, 0.11, poedb says June 5, 2013 and poewiki says June 7, 2013. We follow poewiki. The expansion a league shipped with has its own name: for example the Mercenaries league (3.26) came with Secrets of the Atlas, and the Ancestor league (3.22) with Trial of the Ancestors.
How a league works
Duration. The in-game help panel says about three months, and poewiki says a new league every 13–16 weeks. In practice it varies: since 3.26 leagues ran 17–19 weeks (Mercenaries 19.4, Keepers 17.4, Mirage 19.4), and the record holder Settlers (3.25) about 45 weeks. Allflame is planned for about 15.4 weeks (our calculation from GGG's dates). A league usually starts on a Friday and ends on a Monday.
A fresh start. In a new league everyone starts with no items and no currency. Launch times vary (19:00 or 20:00 UTC per the wiki), so do not assume it is always 1 PM Pacific. The Atlas in Standard resets when a new league starts, and you restore progress by completing one legacy T16 map.
After the league ends. Characters and stashes move to the permanent league: softcore to Standard, Hardcore to Hardcore, SSF variants to their counterparts. Nothing is lost, so you can keep playing. If you are just starting, see the beginner's guide.
Modes. Every league has variants:
- Hardcore (HC): your character has one life. Since 3.27, dying in a HC challenge league moves the character to the softcore version of the same league (it used to be Standard).
- Solo Self-Found (SSF): no trading and no parties. From the character selection screen you can migrate to the trade version.
- Ruthless: a harsh mode with item scarcity, added in 3.20. Characters on the Ruthless ladder cannot be migrated, and HC combined with Ruthless means true permadeath (the character goes to Void). Allflame has Ruthless too (8 new challenges).
Leagues from 2013–2015 were split into "Standard only" or "Hardcore only". Since Talisman (2.1) every league has variants.
Which mechanics went permanent
Per poewiki, league mechanics are league features that were reworked and added to the game for good after the league ended. They are named after the league they came from, and you can often boost them on maps (for example with scarabs and the Atlas tree).
- Fully added (per the wiki): Abyss, Affliction, Ambush, Anarchy, Bestiary, Betrayal, Beyond, Blight, Breach, Delirium, Delve, Domination, Essence, Expedition, Harbinger, Harvest, Heist, Incursion, Legion, Ritual, Sanctum, Sentinel, Settlers, Torment, Ultimatum.
- Narrowed: Rampage (only via unique item modifiers), Tempest (via items such as the Scarab of Radiant Storms), Warbands (map bosses and some Azurite Mine nodes).
- Mercenaries: the wiki lists them as core, but GGG only announced it in the 3.29.0 patch notes ("Mercenaries of Trarthus as a Core League"). We go with GGG: core since 3.29.
- Keepers: the new Breach became core (Unstable and Hive, from Act 6 onwards since 3.28). The Genesis Tree stays, but without Grafts.
- Removed from the game: Metamorph (3.23), Perandus (3.16), Prophecy (3.17), Invasion (phased out), and also Legacy, Bloodlines and Nemesis.
- Never added: Archnemesis, Crucible, Necropolis, Synthesis, Talisman, Ancestor, Scourge, Kalandra and Mirage. GGG put it plainly: "The Mirage system will not be going core in 3.29". Some remnants remain, such as Kalandra's Reflecting Mist in T16+ maps or unique talismans in the drop pool.
In 3.29 GGG also reworked older mechanics: Abyss, Legion (Enshrouding Crystals instead of Incubators) and Talismans (Talisman Revamp).
Retention: how many players stay
GGG does not publish retention figures, so we only have Steam (steamcharts). It excludes the standalone client and consoles, and calendar months do not line up with league weeks. The table shows the average player count per month.
| League | Best month (average) | Third month, counting the launch month as the first |
|---|---|---|
| Settlers (3.25) | 76,501 (August 2024) | 28,920 (September 2024) |
| Mercenaries (3.26) | 50,856 (June 2025) | 15,738 (August 2025) |
| Keepers (3.27) | 66,031 (November 2025) | 13,507 (December 2025) |
| Mirage (3.28) | 58,140 (March 2026) | 7,602 (May 2026) |
| Allflame (3.29) | 40,243 (August 2026) | 8,251 (September 2026) |
From the best month to the third, the average falls from about 2.6 times (Settlers) to about 7.6 times (Mirage), our calculation from these figures. In Allflame the July peak was 187,116 players, and the last 30 days (as of October 17, 2026) average 5,363. A league launching late in the month (Keepers, Allflame) pulls down the first month's average.
What's next
The next league, 3.30, starts on November 13, 2026. GGG will show the details at ExileCon on November 6, 2026 (10 PM in Poland), and we will update league 3.30 after the reveal. Path of Exile 2 version 1.0 also arrives on December 11, 2026, but it is a separate game and this list covers PoE 1 only.
