Destiny 2 developed by Bungie is an online first-person shooter game, which is available for free. For Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, it was first made available as a pay-to-play game in 2017. On October 1, 2019, it was released under the New Light label and went free-to-play, using the games as a service model. It is the follow-up to Destiny from 2014 and its ensuing expansions.
Season of the Wish is the latest season of Destiny 2. This is before Bungie switches with the impending Final Shape expansion from a loot-shooter to an episodic format. On November 28, the last season of Destiny 2 went live, concluding the Lightfall saga before the now-postponed release of The Final Shape expansion.
Season of the Wish will end in June 2024. This will be the longest season to date in contrast to the majority of other seasons that have been produced throughout the years.
Destiny 2’s Season of the Wish hits a new low
Since the release of Lightfall, player popularity of Destiny 2 has been declining. Fans harshly panned the expansion, with some even speculating that Lightfall was intended to be a filler DLC. Since then, Bungie has significantly altered the gameplay, economy, and weaponry of the game, but the desired outcomes haven’t occurred.
The Season of the Wish has been off to a rough start. Players are not happy with how the game works out. To Bungie’s mounting list of worries, a report has shown that the average number of players in Destiny 2 has reached an all-time low on Steam for any prior season of the game.
Season of the Wish had the lowest Day-1 peak players (so far) for a seasonal release on Steam since 2018.
On the other side, Destiny 2 hit an all-time high concurrent players on Steam with Lightfall earlier this year. pic.twitter.com/3yoxgr4koU
— Destiny Bulletin (@DestinyBulletn) November 29, 2023
Destiny 2’s steam charts data shows that the Season of the Wish has hit an all-time low average player count. According to the chart, the day one player peak of the Season of the Wish stands at 94,670. This is by far the lowest first-day player count of Destiny 2 on Steam. The Season of the Wish is even behind Lightfall which was not received well by fans, in terms of player count.
Community members are already worried about Destiny 2’s average player count across its seasons. The number of players for Destiny 2 since December 2019 is also available on Steam. From December 2019 to November 2022, the average player count has fallen below 40,000. With the average player count being at an all-time low, Bungie has a difficult time bringing the game back to life.
Destiny 2 facing more issues
The low player counts coincide with Bungie’s recent layoffs of roughly 100 employees, which raised concerns amongst fans about the future of the game due to Destiny 2’s declining popularity and poor income forecasts.
To add to Destiny 2’s problems, Bungie’s monetization model didn’t work out well among fans this time. Bungie has been depending more and more on DLC and many microtransaction channels to sustain their long-running live-service game. Fans this time started to voice their concerns when they saw a starter pack included in the game.
Destiny 2 quickly became the subject of criticism and backlash over pay-to-win concerns. This is when Bungie added a $15 starter pack to the game. Among the ways players showed their disapproval for this starter pack was by posting reviews of it online on Steam and labeling it with user tags like “Psychological Horror,” “Capitalism,” and “Crime.”
After massive backlash from the gaming community, Bungie has finally withdrawn the $15 starter pack. It still remains to be seen as to how Bungie addresses all the problems revolving around Destiny 2.