Since the release of its last major expansion, The Final Shape, Bungie’s live service game Destiny 2 has seen its player base plummet by more than 89%, as calculated through publicly available Steam data. This staggering decline represents only the PC player base, meaning the numbers on consoles—while likely slightly better—do little to paint a rosier picture. For a live service game dependent on consistent player engagement, this near-total exodus is nothing short of disastrous.
The Destiny 2 community initially rallied around The Final Shape during its “honeymoon phase,” but the optimism quickly eroded (as they typically do once players see the lack of depth of actual new content). Frustrations over shallow content, intrusive Eververse microtransactions, broken gameplay systems (Potions, anyone?), frequent game-crashing errors (Guitar errors, anyone?), and a weak narrative with their Episodes and Acts have left players feeling more disappointed the likes of which we have not seen before.
Bungie’s struggles have been nothing short of constant through its lousy leadership, especially with multiple waves of layoffs and restructuring throughout 2024, with the company reportedly losing nearly 45% of its staff since the layoffs began. Much of the remaining workforce has shifted focus to Bungie’s next big IP, a rebooted Marathon, leaving Destiny 2 to in an embarrassing and nearly unplayable state for some.
Fans are understandably worried, or more accurately incredibly furious, about Bungie’s disregard for player focus and concern. The studio’s attention on Marathon—a hero-focused extraction shooter—has many feeling that Destiny 2 is on life support while Marathon siphons away resources and talent. To make matters worse, Marathon has faced delays, originally slated for a 2024 release but now pushed to 2025, last we were told. But since Bungie has been almost entirely radio silent about Marathon, with only a cinematic announcement trailer and a handful of concept art pieces shown to the public and no gameplay footage since its reveal, we expect the game to more than likely be pushed back to release in 2026.
Still on the subject of Marathon for a moment- allegedly, early internal feedback on Marathon has been relatively negative (though some conflicting reports state internally it is positive), with some insiders whispering that the game’s current state is deeply disappointing. The situation wasn’t helped by the firing of Marathon’s original lead, Chris Barrett, for alleged inappropriate conduct, nor by the subsequent changes to the game’s direction under his replacement, Joe Ziegler. The lack of updates of any kind so far have done nothing short of eliminating whatever hype that may have existed.
Meanwhile, Destiny 2 continues to stumble head over feet, as it were. The upcoming Frontiers era has been announced as offering smaller content portions than what players have been used to, adding to a certain sentiment that Bungie is simply treading water to further gauge fans with presumably high prices and less to show for it. Fans are clearly furious at the lack of innovation, with Destiny’s core gameplay loop of standing on plates, throwing charges, and ghost-scanning objects feeling incredibly stale after nearly a decade. While the franchise’s hallmark “gunplay” remains sharp, even the best mechanics can’t compensate for content that feels recycled and shallow.
Bungie’s design philosophy of replaying content ad nauseam to complete challenges or earn titles is increasingly out of step with players’ expectations. Many activities remain unplayed after initial runs, leaving months of development work to waste. While this might be a symptom of live service games in general, Bungie’s near-90% player drop-off since June 2024 indicates that this approach is no longer viable. They may need to step it up or face certain doom, so to speak.
Now more than ever, Sony needs to step in and remove the executives in charge of these bad choices and overhaul the franchise to re-instate good will once more and elevate Destiny closer to its potential.
Maybe Marathon will release as a sleeper hit, maybe Frontiers will lure back some players, and maybe the studio’s leadership will finally empower its talented developers to create meaningful, innovative experiences. But one thing is clear: Bungie is unlikely to hit those peak player numbers seen during The Final Shape’s launch.
Unless Sony steps in to overhaul the series and address Bungie’s ongoing leadership issues, the franchise risks becoming a costly misstep for the gaming giant. Fans who have stuck with Destiny 2 for nearly a decade are understandably exhausted—and who can blame them? The series has stagnated, failing to evolve while competitors continue to raise the bar higher than ever. Bungie’s future hinges not just on winning back trust for the hundredth time, but on proving it is capable of still delivering something truly remarkable. Without that, Destiny may have already sealed its fate.
