In today's news post, we're taking a look at all microtransactions from Path of Exile's beginning to see which microtransactions in each category have sold the most and discussing the various factors that contribute to this.

Before we begin, it's worth noting that all microtransactions featured below are ordered by quantity purchased rather than how much they contribute to overall sales.

Let's start with Armour Sets. Released in 2015, the Infernal Armour Set became an absolute hit amongst the community, holding the top position even five years later. Interestingly enough, while only two out of the ten armour packs in this list can be considered as relatively new, both represent the most popular microtransaction themes, Celestial and Stygian. It's also worth noting that these stats skew towards older microtransactions simply because there's been a longer amount of time to purchase them. More recently released microtransactions are at a disadvantage for appearing in these lists as there has been less time to purchase them.

Armour Sets

• Infernal Armour
• Demon King Armour
• Seraph Armour
• Celestial Armour
• Arcane Armour
• Stygian Armour
• Elite Pack
• Arctic Armour
• Ghostflame Armour
• Vampiric Armour

Looking at back attachments, we can see that the majority of players who purchase cosmetic effects prefer actual wings and wing-like attachments (the bigger the better!). The Exile's Essentials Back Attachment is in third place which is most likely a result of it being the very first back attachment we've released alongside its low price. Another microtransaction from the early days of Path of Exile, the Seraph Wings, remains popular even now, which is quite interesting as most of the old cosmetic effects tend to taper off in sales over time.

Back Attachments

• Gloom Wings
• Seraph Wings
• Exile's Essentials Back Attachment
• Tentacle Wings
• Dragon Hunter Wings
• Celestial Wings
• Ultimate Chaos Wings
• Phoenix Wings
• Seraph Spirit Wings
• Celestial Hooded Cloak

Now onto Character Effects. With the Celestial theme being so popular, it's not a surprise that Celestial microtransactions made it to the top in almost every category. However, many people also enjoy bloody and dark character effects for their Exiles (Bat Swarm and Ultimate Chaos effect in the top three).

Character Effects

• Celestial Character Effect
• Bat Swarm Effect
• Ultimate Chaos Character Effect
• Sin Character Effect
• Fire Character Effect
• Arcane Character Effect
• Seraph Character Effect
• Innocence Character Effect
• Arctic Character Effect
• Bone Aura Character Effect

Just like with Armour Sets, the Infernal theme prevails in the Footprints category. Yet again, the majority of microtransactions in this list have been released a long time ago which is the most likely cause of them being so high in the list.

Footprints

• Infernal Footprints
• Ultimate Chaos Footprints
• Lightning Footprints
• Ebony Footprints
• Necrotic Footprints
• Celestial Footprints
• Ghostflame Footprints
• Radiant Footprints
• Sin Footprints
• Fire Footprints

A preference for visually impressive microtransactions is pretty clear under the Weapon Skin section, with the massive Crypt Sword and the Colossus Sword being on the first and second place respectively. The recently released Darkprism and Void Emperor Weapon Skins can be applied to a wide variety of weapon types which explains their popularity (in addition to being made in celestial style).

Weapon Skins

• Crypt Sword
• Colossus Sword
• Seraph Dagger
• Adder's Claw
• Darkprism Weapon
• Seraph Sword
• Void Emperor Weapon Skin
• Warlock Dagger
• Kacha Axe
• Dragon Hunter Sword

Let's look at Weapon Effects. The majority of microtransactions in this list have been available since the beginning, their prices are relatively low which make it easy to add them to your collection. Additionally, most people get weapon effects from supporter packs nowadays which is very likely the main reason for the absence of modern weapon effects in this list.

Weapon Effects

• Turquoise Weapon Effect
• Extra Gore Effect
• Infernal Weapon Effect
• Emerald Weapon Effect
• Crimson Weapon Effect
• Ebony Weapon Effect
• Azure Weapon Effect
• Celestial Weapon Effect
• Acid Weapon Effect
• Arcane Weapon Effect

Stash Tabs are continuing to be popular no matter what, no surprises here. The upgrades are most likely the most popular due to people upgrading their initial four stash tabs. Also, Extra Stash Tabs have the appearance of being more popular but considering the Premium Bundle contains six tabs which count as a single purchase, you'd see more of them in reality than regular Stash Tabs.

Stash Tabs

• Upgrade To Premium
• Extra Stash Tab
• Currency Tab
• Premium Stash Tab Bundle
• Map Tab
• Premium Stash Tab
• Premium Quad Tab
• Divination Tab
• Essence Tab
• Fragment Tab

The Skill Effects section represents the meta of the past with Seraph Spectral Throw in third place (thanks in part to one certain streamer). In general, the high popularity of older effects can be explained by their prices which become even lower during our big weekend sales. By this point you're probably not surprised to see Celestial effects at the top again.

Skill Effects

• Blue Cyclone Effect
• Celestial Herald Effect
• Seraph Spectral Throw
• Ethereal Stars
• White Cyclone Effect
• Black Hole Frostbolt Effect
• Water Nova
• Automaton Arc Effect
• Blue Flame Incinerate
• Celestial Aura Effect

In the Shields category we see a dominance of the shiny and epic-looking cosmetics yet again with big and colourful Celestial and Yaksha Shields in first and second place respectively. The presence of the Zenith Shield in this list is quite interesting. Recently released, this shield stands out from other cosmetics with its futuristic design, which is very likely the reason for its popularity alongside other microtransactions from this series (although there are no Zenith cosmetic effects in other categories, this theme is popular enough and we would expect to see it potentially rise through the ranks over time).

Shields

• Celestial Shield
• Yaksha Shield
• Badge of Skulls
• Seraph Shield
• Demon King Shield
• Carnage Shield
• Arcane Shield
• Radiant Shield
• Zenith Shield
• Innocence Shield

Despite a huge assortment of portals of all possible kinds, the list below shows that players tend to prefer relatively simple effects for their portals. Most of the portals featured here were released a long time ago which is probably another reason for their high popularity - back in the days when players had a limited number of effects to choose from. With the introduction of the random portal option and a range of portals we have available now, we're likely to see a different situation here over time.

Portals

• Black Hole Portal
• Shaper Portal
• Demon King Portal
• Orange Portal
• Steam Powered Portal
• Ultimate Chaos Portal
• Arctic Portal
• Fire Portal
• Dragon Portal
• Malachai Portal

The Weta Pet has conquered the top of the Pets section, being the most popular choice for a purchase when we run our 'Get a Free Mystery Box' promotions due to its price (or there are an enormous amount of entomologists in our community). A high demand for cats doesn't need to be explained, but we didn't expect to see the Sin Sword Pet and the Innocence Sword Pet in this list. Perhaps, you'd like to see more variety for this type of pet?

Pets

• Weta Pet
• Frog Pet
• Celestial Cat Pet
• Scorpion Pet
• Blue Frog Pet
• Sin Sword Pet
• Black Cat Pet
• Innocence Sword Pet
• Blood Guard Pigeon
• Ghostflame Swarm

The Polaris Mystery Box has beaten all previous records and become the most popular Mystery Box of all time, which was expected considering the ever growing number of players and awesome design of these cosmetics. It was also released alongside a large expansion which would have boosted its sales. With the release of the Chaos and Order Mystery Box we introduced the concept of competing sides in mystery boxes for the first time. We have also significantly improved the quality of Mystery Box contents by adding 38 completely new microtransactions (instead of reskins or microtransactions that were already in the store). The contents of the Chaos and Order Mystery Box were received so well by our community that you can find individual microtransactions from this box in various lists of the most popular microtransactions.

Mystery Boxes

• Polaris
• Chaos and Order
• Sin and Innocence
• Fairgraves
• Glimmerwood
• Apocalypse
• Fire and Ice
• Thaumaturgy
• Classic
• Oriath

The following microtransactions can't be attributed to a specific category, but we thought you might be interested in how they rank relative to each other.

Miscellaneous

• Skin Transfer Single
• Extra Character Slot
• Skin Transfer 10 Pack
• Invisible Buff
• Vanishing Dye
• Guild Member Slot Bundle
• Witch Dance
• Skin Transfer 50 Pack
• Shadow Dance
• Ranger Dance

Finally, the hideouts. The top three microtransactions in this category - the Falling Leaves, Wide Light Beam and Rain decorations - are the oldest cosmetics of this type, available with a low price and look good in almost every hideout. The Celestial Nebula in this list shows the continued popularity of the space theme, and the Hideout Music Player just had to be here because who wouldn't want to listen to the Legion soundtrack over and over again in their hideout?

Hideouts

• Falling Leaves Decoration
• Wide Light Beam Decoration
• Rain Decoration
• Wisp Swarm Decoration
• Celestial Nebula Hideout
• Hideout Music Player
• Shaper's Hideout
• Glimmerwood Hideout
• Fireplace Decoration
• Energy Dome Decoration

That's it for this round of statistics for today, we hope you found it interesting. All the data mentioned above represents our community's willingness to support the development of Path of Exile and enable us to keep launching new content like our upcoming June expansion and of course, Path of Exile 2. We really appreciate it! Thanks so much for your continued support!