Diablo 4 and PoE 2's fastest competitor drops a new update at the perfect time, earning its most players ever

Torchlight Infinite is a game that I can’t help but have mixed feelings about. It’ll always be mired in that aching knowledge that it’s not really the same thing as the original two entries from Runic Games that I fell in love with more than a decade ago. After a disappointing third outing, however, TI is more of a reinvention, and once I managed to put aside my qualms and sit down with it, I found there’s a lot to like. Still, the ARPG space is absolutely packed, and trying to make time for it is tough – but XD has swept in at the perfect moment with its new season.

Slotting the new Torchlight Infinite update into this perfect start-of-year gap between the best games like Diablo has given it the most chance of success. The latest Path of Exile 2 update has really impressed me with its new class, but I’m already about done grinding out everything I’m going to do this season for my Druid. Diablo 4 lumbers on, but even if you were excited to try out its Paladin class early you’ve probably finished with it for now. Sure, Blizzard dropped its revamped leaderboards in beta earlier this week, but I really can’t be too enthused about those until they’re more complete.

Elsewhere, Last Epoch, which has long been a personal favorite of mine, doesn’t start its next season until March. I’m also watching both Titan Quest 2’s early access progress and the leadup to Grim Dawn’s Fangs of Asterkarn expansion with keen interest (it really is quite the time to be an ARPG enjoyer), but neither is likely to drop anything huge in January. That means Torchlight Infinite is the place to get your loot fix right now, and what a lot of loot it’s got.

The new Torchlight Infinite Vorax season is absolutely stacked with additions. Its latest mechanic lets you grow your own custom monsters that you can then challenge for rewards in a climactic arena battle. Alongside this is the introduction of a ‘grafting’ system. This enables the crafting of special gear that can break the usual restrictions of the attribute and trait systems, cracking the buildcrafting game wide open.

Then there’s Vendetta Erika, a new twist on one of the game’s existing heroes. This variant form turns her into an assassin who can automatically trigger her attack skills as she uses movement abilities, which lets her take advantage of her core trait that ramps up damage the closer she is to her target. The result is a character who gets around at such an incredible pace that XD has had to introduce an optional ‘slow camera’ toggle, specifically designed to counteract any motion sickness that some might experience from playing her.

There’s much more at play, from new spellcasting trick Entangle to additional endgame bosses, and you can read about the rest in my full season preview. However, perhaps the most notable change, especially if you’ve been wary of trying Torchlight Infinite the way that I was for a long time, is a UI overhaul that’s just the first part in a longer-term visual update. XD is putting in the effort to make the game cleaner, prettier, and easier to read – a problem it’s long suffered from.

The result of all this? A new concurrent player-count high of 23,715 on Steam, achieved on Saturday January 17, nudging Torchlight above its previous best all the way back at the game’s launch. That’s not including the more than 7,600 peak it reached on the Chinese-specific client on the same day. It just goes to show that being in the right place at the right time can be a real boon.