Why does POE have such terrible player base on console?

It is honestly shocking to me how small the console playerbase appears to be on consoles (if feels like combined we are less than 15% of the total playerbase) after more than 6 years on XBox and 4 years on PS (versus 10 years on PC).
Current market shares and trends show not only is console a larger market (29% (combined) vs 22% for PC) it also has a larger spend on mtx (if you take Fortnite as a similar model of free game and paid mtx, 80% of their revenue is from console in 2022, maybe due to younger player bases on console having more disposable income or maybe just due to lower hardware investment costs… who knows). This trend seems also to be growing (console getting slowly larger and PC getting slowly smaller, but only approx a 1% shift per year).
There has to be a reason why our (PoE) console base has so shockingly failed to show decent growth, in fact (personal observation) it feels like it’s shrinking.
I am excited by the potential of PoE ‘2’ (thank the gods GGG has shown the wisdom to split this new game off from the current one, just development wise this has to be a weight off their shoulders). I worry that the same console vs PC playerbase issue might occur with the new game, I sincerely hope this is not the case and that GGG has plans to ensure ‘equal’ advertising and marketing and support for ALL PLATFORMS.
In a final, and personal, sentence I would like to thank GGG for the years (apparently 261 days of played time and counting) I have had with PoE, that we (consoles) also get a chance to join in with the beta phase of PoE2 (once it reaches open beta phase) and wish them the very very best of luck with the launch (hope it’s soon, I am predicting December 2024 (fingers crossed)) of PoE2 (please for heavens sake make it an all platforms launch and a shared trade database).
Best wishes,
Timbo

I LOVE the console version of the game. I wish it was more popular as well. I know they plan on sticking with the game on console, but I hope they always stick with it. They do a great job with it!

The console playerbase is small because PoE is fundamentally a "PC Game" us console players are literally seen as a meme by the PC community and treated like an unwanted stepchild by GGG.

As far as gaming in general goes, console players are generally the more casual gamers, and PoE is one of the most casual unfriendly games to exist, so that also doesn't help.

Having later league starts and missing important features like cast of movement also doesn't help. Playing on PC is just a "better experience" in general.

Oh and this league... performance on last gen consoles makes PoE basically unplayable, so theres that too, it doesn't even run great on PS5 currently.

I love PoE, but being the minority meme playerbase feels like shit most of the time, and even if i had a decent PC or wanted to pay for Geforce now, i refuse to buy my MTX again on PC.

They refuse to fix long standing bugs like party bug!
Trading could be better, insta buyout for example would fix many problems.
Console lacks features like "use skill on left click" which is essential on some builds
Again, Controller makes some skills hard to use and makes some boss fights harder then they are on precise keyboard, mouse game play

Also this game does ZERO hand holding for new players so most log out after they see the skill tree. THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT! Because I love how complex this game is and even after so many seasons I have still new stuff to learn.

I can't say that I like the game on console, I've tried both.
UI and controls would need to be redesigned to work better for consoles.

Until that is done it will never be very popular on consoles, or that is my feeling at least.