In 2022, Destiny 2 had its greatest yr ever, due to the superb Witch Queen enlargement and the seasonal content material that adopted. This finally led to all-time excessive concurrent participant counts when the follow-up enlargement, Lightfall, launched earlier this yr. Unfortunately, the Lightfall enlargement amounted to little greater than filler content material, resulting in many gamers changing into annoyed with the sport. Now, participant counts are hitting all-time lows on PC.
As identified by Forbes, Steam Charts now reveals that Destiny 2’s common participant depend sits at slightly below 35K concurrent gamers on Steam within the final 30 days and the height concurrent participant depend is lower than 60K. While not horrible numbers, these are the bottom numbers Destiny 2 has pulled on PC since launching on Steam in 2019.
This confirms precisely what Bungie instructed staff in October when it laid off a bit of its employees. Revenues for Destiny 2 this yr have been apparently 45 p.c under projections as a consequence of low participant retention. These newest participant numbers on Steam assist precisely that. However, additionally it is value declaring that it was Bungie’s management that selected to separate its deliberate three expansions into 4.
Originally, Lightfall was set to be essentially the most vital enlargement within the sport’s historical past, wrapping up the ‘Light and Darkness’ saga to clear issues up for a recent new Destiny story. However, Bungie ultimately determined to chop Lightfall considerably, placing all the most important story content material into a brand new enlargement, The Final Shape, which is because of launch in 2024.
Bungie needed to have identified that gamers would not be impressed by Lightfall’s filler marketing campaign, which does little or no to maneuver the story ahead. Players have been anticipating to tackle The Witness, or on the very least, be taught some significant details about the character and the place they got here from. Instead, what we acquired was the revival of an previous villain and a shoe-horned-in story, with the one significant cutscene arriving on the very finish of the marketing campaign.
KitGuru Says: Beyond Light and The Witch Queen had be so excited for Destiny 2’s future. Lightfall was the primary time I felt utterly and totally ripped off by the sport. I’m not shocked that Destiny 2 is in a poor place proper now however finally, Bungie management solely has itself accountable. If The Final Shape would not ship, then I doubt there’s a salvageable future for the sport in any respect.
