Destiny 2’s new release structure fails to capture fans as player counts plummet act-on-act

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Bungie has now launched Act 3 of Destiny 2’s Revenant, concluding the tale’s epilogue. Following The Final Shape’s conclusion that marked the end of the game’s primary narrative, this new story content has led to the smallest number of players participating in the series so far.

As a dedicated fan, I had high hopes that with the arrival of Act 3, Destiny 2 would manage to reclaim some of its former player base. Regrettably, it seems my optimism was misplaced, as the debut of Act 3 marks the lowest simultaneous player count ever recorded for any new content release in the franchise’s history.

Destiny 2 Revenant fails to bring back players

By examining the Steam Charts data for Destiny 2, it’s clear that there may be cause for concern regarding its future. Similar to other live-service games, Destiny 2 experiences a spike in player numbers whenever new content is released, such as the ongoing rollout of Revenant updates.

Ever since each new Act dropped, I’ve noticed that Destiny 2 has been struggling to retain its player base with declining numbers of returning players. However, when The Final Shape was released in June 2024, the looter shooter experienced a significant surge in concurrent players, marking the highest number in over a year. In fact, it jumped from a record-low of 38,000 players in November to an astounding 314,000!

After the debut of Act 1 from The Revenant, a significant number of gamers returned to play, although this was noticeably lower than at the end of The Final Shape, with only around 78,000 concurrent players on Steam. On November 19th, the launch of Act 2 caused another surge in player numbers, reaching approximately 53,000 players once more.

In Act 3 of The Revenant, we see a continuing decline, with just 36,000 players simultaneously playing when it was first released. Though having tens of thousands of players is still impressive, it’s worth noting that this number is lower than the game’s previous record low, which was before the launch of The Final Shape update.

Based on the data, it appears that most players of Destiny 2 are unlikely to come back following the launch of The Final Shape. Since Destiny 3 hasn’t been announced yet, we’ll have to wait and see if its upcoming expansions can revive the game. However, at this point, it seems the game may have lost some of its appeal.

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2025-01-08 16:39