Every league we comb through data for useful takeaways to help us further improve Path of Exile. Last week we looked at player-centric data to see which uniques and skills were most popular in the Harbinger leagues. Today we're looking at which areas are the most popular, most deadly, and most time consuming.

• The Feeding Trough
• The Chamber of Innocence
• The Cathedral Rooftop
• The Harbour Bridge
• The Hall of Grandmasters
• Vaal Temple
• The Harvest
• The Karui Fortress
• The Temple of Decay Level 2
• The High Gardens

Unsurprisingly, the most deadly area is also the area which houses the final boss of Path of Exile's main storyline. In fact, almost all of these areas contain particularly difficult boss fights, which is appropriately where the most consistent difficulty should be. If we filter out story areas and look simply at map-level areas we see this:

• The Hall of Grandmasters
• Vaal Temple
• Core
• The Alluring Abyss
• Chayula's Domain
• Maze of the Minotaur
• Overgrown Ruin
• Forge of the Phoenix
• The Shaper's Realm
• Pit of the Chimera

These statistics are mostly in alignment with our targeted difficulty curve, especially once you take in factors such as the capacity for maps to roll punishing mods that Atziri/Shaper cannot, and sharp spikes in difficulty in The Hall of Grandmasters. It's good to see that no low- or mid-tier maps have made the list.

Let's take a look at which areas are being run the most:

• Oasis
• Beach
• Spider Forest
• The Blood Aqueduct
• Arid Lake
• Jungle Valley
• Dunes
• The Crystal Veins
• Racecourse
• The Ravaged Square

We've culled out a few areas that would otherwise have warped the stats, such as hideouts and the Aspirant's Plaza. The Age of Dried Lake has officially come to an end, with the relatively open, straight-forward layout of Oasis, Spider Forest and Beach taking the top spots. All three of these maps are quite closely matched in terms of the volume run.

Crystal Veins and Ravaged Square both make an appearance, likely because they are some of the few areas in Path of Exile that you must revisit several times to complete the story.

Finally, let's take a look at which areas had the longest average playtime:

• Poorjoy's Asylum (75.48)
• The Coward's Trial (28.53)
• Maelström of Chaos (25.93)
• Caer Blaidd, Wolfpack's Den (19.87)
• Torture Chamber (19.38)

Honestly, the average amount of time spent in Poorjoy's Asylum is impressive. It's a large, tricky area, but the average instance time is more than twice the next map!

The top four areas are all unique maps, which tend to have specialised layouts and rules that can slow players down. They're also more likely to be 'savoured' than ordinary maps or story areas, and can be skewed by outliers a little more easily due to smaller volumes of players passing through them. Torture Chamber, on the other hand, is just tricky to navigate.

That's it for this stats round-up. We hope you've enjoyed this insight!