It has been two months since the release of Destiny 2. Players have had time to extensively explore the Throne World, tackle the new raid, and complete many new tasks. But how has Destiny 2 fared during this time, and has Bungie been able to maintain or even increase its player base?
When was Witch Queen released? Witch Queen was released on February 22, 2022. Players had to endure the longest season before the worm of Savathûn could finally be exorcised. Until then, many Guardians had high expectations of Bungie, as they had touted Witch Queen as the most impressive expansion with a good story.
Although Witch Queen has sold well, the question remains how successful Destiny 2 still is after Witch Queen, how many players Bungie has managed to retain, and whether more active players are journeying through the space shooter than before the deceptive Witch Queen DLC.
Bungie’s success with Witch Queen
To show you how successful Witch Queen actually was, we derive our numbers from Steam Charts. This gives us a small insight into how many players were at least active on Steam and allows us to make comparisons to previous months.
Unfortunately, we cannot track the player numbers for console players, as there is no reliable site that reveals where their numbers and statistics come from.
How successful was Witch Queen? At the launch of Witch Queen on February 22, 2022, there were 289,895 players online in Destiny 2. The average number in February was 75,169 players on Steam. In March, even 88,605 average players were active in Destiny 2.
Comparing the average active player numbers to those at the “Beyond Light” release, the icy DLC on Europa performs better with 99,900 players. However, Beyond Light never reached the peak of Witch Queen, achieving only 241,843 concurrent players.
Witch Queen has been able to retain more players over time than Beyond Light. The peak in the last 30 days was 102,186 active players, while January 2021 shows only 79,290 for Beyond Light.
Thus, it is evident that more players were gained on Steam compared to the previous DLC on Europa. However, Witch Queen did not create a huge boom or lead to exorbitant player numbers. While the space shooter remains steadily present, the developers of Destiny 2 have not been able to ignite a massive hype in the hearts of the players.
On consoles, however, more players may have been active, but these cannot be corroborated from a reliable source and are therefore not considered by us.
Will Destiny 2 continue to gain players? It’s hard to predict whether further DLCs or seasons could lead to a continuous increase. Especially since for new players, “Witch Queen” was the last chance to catch up story-wise on what they missed.
For newcomers, it will consequently become increasingly difficult to catch up, and that deters many from diving in. Nevertheless, Destiny 2 has a large core player base that keeps the loot shooter alive despite problems and content droughts.
As long as these players exist, the loot shooter will continue to survive. It remains to be seen what Bungie will conjure up next. Much is still open in the story of Destiny 2, and even though the end of the saga is still far away, the question arises: what happens after the battle with the Darkness?
Even if the future is uncertain, one can trust Bungie to bring a unique story to light or into the darkness in its future DLCs.
Do you think Destiny 2 will keep getting content after the end of the saga, or do you think Bungie will only work on a low flame and sporadically provide content to focus on new projects? Will you still play Destiny 2? Let us know in the comments!
