ExileCon 2026 Viewing Guide

ExileCon 2026 is the last major stage before Path of Exile 2 launches on December 11. Over one Auckland weekend, Grinding Gear Games will reveal the Path of Exile 1 3.30 expansion in full, present what the studio is calling unannounced updates for both games, and run the race finals that decide the year’s fastest players. It is also GGG’s 20th anniversary event, which makes this the most consequential ExileCon since the original in 2019.

You do not need a ticket to watch any of it: the entire broadcast is free on Twitch and YouTube. This guide separates what GGG has officially confirmed from what we expect based on ExileCon 2019 and 2023 patterns, gives you the stream times in your timezone, and lays out a practical viewing plan. The panel-by-panel schedule is still unpublished, but GGG’s October 26 (PST) livestream details post firmed up the timings that matter: a 12:30 PM PST pre-show, a 1:00 PM PST keynote running about two hours, and a promise to post the full schedule “later this week”. This is a living document and will be updated again when that agenda and the Twitch Drop list land. For the broader launch countdown, our 1.0 pre-launch checklist maps the full nine weeks.

ExileCon 2026 at a Glance

Dates, platforms and co-streaming come from GGG’s October 6 (PST) announcement, “One Month until ExileCon 2026”; the 12:30 PM pre-show, the roughly two-hour keynote and the pending schedule come from the October 26 (PST) post, “Two Weeks Until ExileCon 2026!”. Friday November 6 in Auckland is badge pickup and the VIP dinner; the convention floor runs Saturday and Sunday.

How and Where to Watch

The primary feed is the official Path of Exile Twitch channel at twitch.tv/pathofexile, where Twitch Drops will be enabled; GGG mirrors the broadcast to YouTube. The October 6 post confirmed both days stream free: “Join the livestream at 12PM on November 6 and 7 PST … on twitch.tv/pathofexile! The keynote begins at 1PM PST” (official forum). The October 26 post refined the Friday timing: “The keynote officially starts at 1:00 PM on November 6th PST … We’ll go live at 12:30 PM with a pre-show discussion featuring community streamers ZiggyD, Mathil, RaizQT and DarthMicrotransaction”, and confirmed “The main presentation … is around 2 hours long” (official forum).

A two-hour keynote is longer than either previous ExileCon keynote - 2019 and 2023 both stayed near one to one-and-a-half hours - which fits the studio describing it as covering the latest developments for both Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2.

GGG explicitly permits rebroadcasts - “As always, co-streaming is welcome!” - so major PoE creators will likely run commentary streams. Use the official channel for the clean feed and guaranteed Drop tracking, a co-stream for reactions between segments.

Stream and Keynote Times in Your Timezone (Day 1)

These are converted from the confirmed 12:30 PM PST pre-show and 1:00 PM PST keynote on November 6:

GGG’s own post cross-checks this table, stating the keynote starts at “Nov 07, 2026 5:00 AM (GMT+8)” for viewers in that timezone. Day 2 is the open variable: the October 6 post put the stream at 12:00 PM PST on both days, and the October 26 post only re-confirmed Friday’s pre-show and keynote, so plan for a 12:00-12:30 PM PST start on November 7 (November 8 in New Zealand, Australia and Asia) until the agenda says otherwise.

Practical reading of those times: North America gets a relaxed Friday afternoon, the UK and Europe a Friday evening keynote, and East Asia and Australia an early Saturday. If a 5:00 AM (UTC+8) or 6:00 AM (JST) keynote is not realistic, skip the alarm: GGG historically posts the keynote VOD and written announcements within hours, with full-day replays and individual developer talks following over the days after the event. That pattern held in both 2019 and 2023, with no indication 2026 will differ.

Twitch Drops and Rewards

GGG has confirmed Twitch Drops for ExileCon weekend but has not named them. The October 26 post is the most precise wording yet: “Will you be running Twitch Drops during the livestream? Yes! We’ll announce the rewards next week (they are very cool)” (official forum). That points to the week of November 2 - a few days before the event - so the reward list should be public before the keynote window opens. Until it lands, the only honest guide is precedent:

The 2023 details come from GGG’s “ExileCon 2023 Starts Soon!” post. Two things are worth doing now regardless of the reward list: link your Path of Exile and Twitch accounts in your PoE account settings and confirm the link before the keynote window; and decide whether you will idle the stream, since in 2023 the second reward needed four accumulated weekend hours. Whether 2026 Drops work on co-streams as in 2023 is unconfirmed, so the official channel is the safe choice.

What GGG Has Confirmed Will Be on Stage

The official announcement promises “our latest announcements, host developer talks, feature race finales for both games, and much more” (source). Cross-referenced with the official ExileCon page, the confirmed content blocks are:

• The keynote, with unannounced updates presented by Game Directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts, plus deep dives into specific mechanics.
• Developer talks across the weekend, spanning game design and engine development.
• Exclusive demo machines with undisclosed unreleased content playable on site.
• Race finals for both games, run on both days.
• The ExileCon card game and streamer meet-and-greets are confirmed floor activities whose broadcast presence is unknown; live podcasts and developer panels are confirmed as part of the stream.

The finals fields are set. The PoE2 finalists are Jiluo, Giuygiuyg, Jigglypuff and Luxian; the PoE1 finalists are allexpleblord, imexile, MOSTPOSITIVEMAN and Ben_, per GGG’s October 1 qualifier VOD post. Our qualifier guide explains the format.

Not yet confirmed: the panel-by-panel schedule, segment order, which talks are live versus recorded, and the demo-floor content. Everything in the next two sections beyond this list is pattern-based expectation, not fact.

What ExileCon History Predicts for 2026

GGG has run two ExileCons, both at the Aotea Centre, and the format is established.

ExileCon 2019 (November 15-17) drew over 1,100 international attendees. The keynote ran roughly one hour on the Saturday morning NZDT, fronted by Chris Wilson and Jonathan Rogers, and it delivered the original Path of Exile 2 announcement as a seven-act campaign, the Conquerors of the Atlas 3.9 expansion with Metamorph, Path of Exile Mobile, and the first 4.0 details. The broadcast opened with a one-hour streamer pre-show, ran the keynote, then spent the rest of the weekend on post-keynote reactions, a senior-developer Q&A, live gameplay demos and deep-dive talks - around nine hours of streamed content in total, with roughly half the developer presentations streamed live and the rest recorded for later forum release. GGG documented the structure in its livestream details post and the event recap.

ExileCon 2023 (July 28-30) grew to over 1,400 attendees. The keynote ran roughly one to one-and-a-half hours and carried the biggest strategic pivot in the franchise’s history: PoE2 was re-announced as a fully separate game with a hands-on demo on the floor, alongside the 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors reveal and another PoE Mobile update. A 30-minute pre-show led in, and the two streamed days plus weeks of forum-posted talks repeated the 2019 distribution model, as the 2023 recap records.

Projected onto 2026 - most of this is still expectation, not announcement, but keynote length and pre-show length are now confirmed - the shape is:

In other words: one polished keynote holding the headline news, followed immediately by deeper mechanics presentations, gameplay demos, and the races filling the rest of the two days. Treat the specific ordering as a guess until the schedule post appears.

The PoE1 3.30 Reveal: Four Days That Matter

For Path of Exile 1 players, this event has a hard deadline attached. GGG confirmed on October 12 (PST): “Our next expansion for Path of Exile 1 will be released on November 13 (PST), with full details to be revealed at ExileCon 2026 this November” (official timeline post). The current 3.29 league, Curse of the Allflame, ends at 1:00 PM PST on November 9.

That creates a compressed runway: full reveal November 7-8, 3.29 ends November 9, 3.30 live November 13 - four days between the old league closing and the new one opening. Every ExileCon that has featured a PoE1 expansion reveal - 3.9 in 2019 and 3.22 in 2023 - used the same playbook of a keynote trailer followed by a dedicated deep-dive talk with skill and balance details, so expect the league name, mechanic, new skills and patch notes to arrive in that sequence. If you are playing 3.29, the practical move is to finish outstanding challenges and convert whatever league wealth you care about before the November 9 shutdown, then spend the gap reading the patch notes rather than starting anything ambitious.

Forum-circulated claims about 3.30 - an in-map mechanic with no loading screen, an endgame revamp, Mirage going core - come from community posts citing unnamed designers, not GGG; treat them as rumors until the keynote.

The PoE2 1.0 Countdown Segment

Path of Exile 2’s full release is confirmed for December 11, 2026 (PST), fully free-to-play on PC, Steam, PS5, Xbox and the Epic Games Store, with the Duelist class and the remaining Acts 5 and 6 completing the campaign, per GGG’s August release announcement. The Duelist, a sword-focused melee class, was first shown during the August 27 GGG Live and at Gamescom, and every existing class is slated to receive its ascendancy lineup at 1.0. The full confirmed picture is in our 1.0 full release guide, and the class roster context is in the classes and ascendancies explainer.

ExileCon lands five weeks before launch, which makes a substantial 1.0 keynote segment a rational expectation rather than a certainty. The high-confidence expectations are a fuller Duelist presentation - ascendancy nodes and sword skills beyond the Gamescom slice - and the final launch-content confirmation. Jonathan Rogers told PC Gamer in May that 1.0 would arrive “a little bit after ExileCon,” and his Gamescom messaging framed 1.0 as “a beginning rather than an endpoint,” leaving room for a post-1.0 roadmap segment that GGG has not confirmed. The launch league itself, the endgame shape at launch, and any further classes beyond the “few” previously announced ones Rogers referenced are all unconfirmed - ExileCon is the plausible reveal venue, nothing more.

If you are planning a league-start character, do not lock it in until after the keynote and patch notes; the pre-launch checklist covers re-planning that weekend, and the economy reset guide explains what the fresh 1.0 economy does to current wealth.

The Full Schedule and What We Are Waiting For

GGG said on October 6 (PST) it was “still putting the final touches on the event schedule” and would release it “in a couple of weeks.” The October 26 post narrowed that to a firm commitment: “We’ll post the full schedule later this week.” Counting from October 26, that means by Friday October 30 (PST). As of this update on October 29, the official news feed still carries only merchandise, supporter-pack and livestream-detail posts, so the agenda is days away rather than weeks. This section will be replaced with the actual timetable when it lands.

The open items worth watching official channels for:

1. The panel-by-panel schedule with times - the single biggest missing piece.
2. Twitch Drop rewards and watch thresholds for the weekend.
3. Which developer talks are streamed live versus posted as recordings afterward (2019 split these roughly half and half).
4. The exact segment rundown and where the 3.30 deep dive sits.
5. What is on the demo machines at the venue.
6. The streamer code of conduct, promised before the event. (The cosplay and costume weapons policy is already published.)
7. Pre-event teasers - GGG’s only comment so far has been “Soon.”
8. A possible further ticket wave: all three tiers are sold out, and the official ExileCon page has promised at least one more, likely smaller, sale with advance notice.
9. Whether GGG updates PoE Mobile, shown at both previous ExileCons but unmentioned for 2026.

None of these gaps affects the confirmed anchors: 12:30 PM PST pre-show, 1:00 PM PST keynote of roughly two hours, free on Twitch and YouTube.

A Practical Viewing Plan

Until the agenda is official, this is a partly pattern-based plan built on the 2019 and 2023 run-of-show, with the confirmed anchors being the 12:30 PM PST pre-show and the 1:00 PM PST keynote. Block your calendar against those and treat the rest as provisional.

Friday November 6 (PST) / Saturday November 7 (NZT, AEST, Asia)

• 12:30 PM PST - pre-show. Confirmed at 30 minutes by the 12:30 PM go-live and 1:00 PM keynote times, hosted by community streamers ZiggyD, Mathil, RaizQT and DarthMicrotransaction. This is the safe window to verify your Twitch account link and Drop eligibility before the keynote.
• 1:00 PM PST - keynote. The part not to miss, now confirmed at roughly two hours. Expect Rogers and Roberts to carry the 3.30 reveal, the 1.0 and Duelist material, and whatever anniversary announcements GGG is holding.
• Around 3:00 PM PST onward - reactions, Q&A and first deep dives. Based on prior ExileCons, the post-keynote block pairs streamer reactions with senior-developer Q&A, then moves into gameplay demos and the first mechanics presentations; if the 2019/2023 pattern holds, the 3.30 deep dive is a likely candidate for the flagship talk.
• Race coverage interleaves through the day; GGG has confirmed finals run on both days, but the exact slots are unpublished.

Saturday November 7 (PST) / Sunday November 8 (NZT)

• 12:00-12:30 PM PST start, not yet re-confirmed. Day two historically carries the remaining developer talks - design and engine topics - additional demos and the conclusion of the race finals, plus the in-person after-party in Auckland, which is not advertised as broadcast content.
• This is the lower-stakes day if you are choosing what to watch live: the headline news will already be public, and the talks typically go up as recordings over the following weeks.

Region-specific advice: US viewers clear Friday afternoon and Saturday; Europeans book Friday evening and weigh the late Saturday finish; Asia-Pacific viewers set an alarm for the Saturday keynote and consider VODs for day two. Whoever you are, skim the written patch-note and announcement posts between sessions - the fastest way to extract mechanical detail without six hours of stream time.

Mark Your Calendar

The numbers that matter do not move: pre-show at 12:30 PM PST on November 6, keynote at 1:00 PM PST on November 6 running about two hours, free on twitch.tv/pathofexile and YouTube, with 3.30 details, 1.0 countdown news and race finals across the weekend. Set a reminder now, link your Twitch account, and check back before the event: the moment GGG publishes the agenda and the Drop list - both promised within the week - this guide will carry the finalized hour-by-hour schedule.