Destiny 2 is dead? Not at all: on Steam, the action MMO is doing better than ever in Season 15. What is driving its increasing popularity and what is Bungie suddenly doing right?
Destiny 2 celebrated its 4th anniversary on September 6, 2021. Bungie’s action MMO has established itself as one of the most player-heavy games on Steam and is even more popular in the current Season 15.
The memes “Destiny 2 is dead!” and calls like “Is anyone still playing this?” can be safely ignored by Guardians because the numbers tell a clear story. It is striking that the despised season model is attracting more and more players – what is Bungie suddenly doing better?
This is why you hate seasons: MeinMMO learned from surveys that our readers largely reject Destiny 2’s season model. You confirm this trend to us repeatedly in the comments – even under current articles: How Season of the Lost in Destiny 2 is received – How do you like it?
Reasons often mentioned include that Bungie stretches the seasonal content endlessly, artificially prolonging it with time gates. Many also note that after the initial honeymoon phase with a fresh season, the excitement fades after just a few days. The new exotics are quickly obtained, and once the season pass reaches level 100, there is hardly anything left to do.
You would prefer to see big DLCs released more often, which then provide a mass of new content all at once, rather than having to wait again until the next weekly reset after just a few hours to explore new secrets.
How Destiny 2 gets new content:
About every one or two years, there is a big addon available for purchase (€30-40), which brings new locations and fundamental changes – in February 2022, it will be time again with the “Witch Queen” DLC. The last big DLC was Beyond Light at the end of 2020.
Every 3 months, a new season starts: These chapters bring new weapons, activities, a battle pass, and are structured like a TV series. Every week, there are a few minor tasks to complete, and a story arc unfolds over the course of the season. The season offers many free contents, but full access costs about €10.
Several times a year, there are also smaller events that are usually free for everyone. An exception is the 30th anniversary of Bungie in December 2021. This event has many paid contents but also brings significantly more content than other events.
The (Steam) numbers speak for Bungie
Since Destiny 2 moved to Steam, we can closely monitor the player population for PC. The exact numbers for PlayStation 5 and 4 as well as Xbox Series X/S and One are a mystery – but the most visited platform is rumored to be PlayStation. Unfortunately, the population cannot be analyzed as closely as with Steam.
This is what the player numbers on Steam look like:
- 177,734 played at peak during the start of the new Season of the Lost (Season 15) in August 2021.
- 157,679 simultaneous players participated at the start of the Splicer season (Season 14) in May 2021.
- 132,225 Guardians peaked during the launch of the Chosen season (Season 13) in February 2021.
You can see that more players are gathering on Steam season after season to play Destiny 2.
There were strong outliers in the Steam numbers last year on two occasions:
- 241,843 users played concurrently during the release of the Beyond Light expansion in November 2020, even though it had a bumpy start.
- 187,504 Guardians were at peak during the reopening of the cult raid “Vault of Glass” in May 2021.
Apart from these two event heavyweights, Destiny 2 has not been as popular since its move to Steam as it is now with Season 15. Another success report is that the player numbers on Steam are not declining quickly either. It is therefore not a short-term peak.
Destiny 2 is solidly positioned in the top 10 most played titles on Steam. At peaks, it even ranks among the top 5. Even two weeks after the release of the new season, Destiny 2 still recorded 133,000 simultaneous players on September 7, 2021, although this number is likely to decline over the weeks and is expected to stabilize between 90,000 and 60,000 players at peak.
As of the writing of this article (as of September 8, 5:00 PM), there are currently 82,711 players online in Destiny 2 on Steam. And neither in the USA nor Europe is it currently primetime.
Why is Destiny 2 growing season by season?
Destiny 2 has been free-to-play for almost exactly 2 years. Really anyone can try out the Guardian life across all systems. New players have hardly any barriers in their way. Destiny 2 increasingly relies on a mix of nostalgia from the “good old Destiny 1 days” and new content.
Moreover, Bungie constantly provides fresh content that is free. The latest dungeon and even the raid highlight “Vault of Glass” are free. Season after season, there is new gear and even exotics from the season pass for everyone without spending a single cent. Even many paid activities can be tried out once for free, allowing players to form their own opinion.
This is what attracts you every week: Destiny 2 has finally managed to implement the model of TV series correctly:
- The seasonal story doesn’t just trudge along, but invites players week after week with new, cool twists.
- We have found on MeinMMO more than once that Destiny’s significant weakness – the convoluted and fragmented story – is now one of its greatest strengths. Players expect a quiet week in Destiny 2, but are instead treated to the best story in a long time.
- Even though the fragmentation of content over several months is frustrating, Bungie has managed to consistently sprinkle in small highlights: At the moment, Guardians are on a quest with 53 steps. Each week, we get closer to an unknown exotic. Additionally, we look forward to real highlights in the seasons, such as missions on creepy ghost ships.
The seasonal model is likely to be further enhanced. In addition to the quests and story drops, real heavyweights such as raids and dungeons will soon join.
This unites all Guardians via Crossplay: An important factor for the success of the new Season 15 will be the new crossplay feature. Guardians can finally save the universe together across platforms.
Surprisingly, the interactions among PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and Stadia work really well. Old friends, who were long separated by system barriers, have finally found each other again.
This is why Witch Queen is so important: Along with the launch of Season 15, Bungie also revealed the next expansion “Witch Queen” for the first time. The big DLC created massive hype in a showcase and catapulted Destiny 2 to the top of the Steam sales charts (via GameStar).
The current season prepares the story directly for the expansion and will surely benefit from the hype.
Interestingly, it was the €100 edition of “Witch Queen” that was sharply pre-ordered. This edition contains the DLC and all new seasons from 2022, and the anniversary bundle on top contains – basically a comprehensive package for one year of Destiny 2 in the deluxe version.
Are you excited about Bungie’s success and now have the right response to silly questions like “Is anyone playing this?” What do you currently think about the seasonal model in Destiny 2? Have you enjoyed the chapters or would you rather have all the content at once? Or do you agree with the player numbers – let us know in the comments.
