I am both elated and upset to see how well this latest Destiny 2 update, Monument of Triumph, has been performing since its release last Tuesday. It is the final update of Destiny 2, now that Bungie and Sony have decided to end service on the live service game after 11 years. And it’s one that is overwhelmingly beloved by fans, fans who are saying, “This, this is what the game needed!”
That’s backed up by the numbers as well. Destiny 2 peaked at 167,000 concurrent players on Steam, the highest figure since The Final Shape, the grand conclusion of the first ten-year saga, almost two years ago exactly. With the console audiences, that’s around twice as much on that platform, and it’s back in the top 10 on PS5 right now.
But it’s not just the peak, Destiny 2 has been hitting over 120,000 concurrent players a night for nearly a week now, where every day has been higher than July 2025’s Edge of Fate expansion’s peak. In the less dire post-Final Shape era where Destiny had three substantive episodes, those never peaked at more than 90,000 concurrents, despite adding loads of new story content that this update does not have.
This is also reflected in earnings. Destiny 2 remains in the top 3 sellers on Steam right now, with a $25 “everything” bundle now being sold. Again, this was a free update, so this is selling content to those who have missed out the last few years or so, now motivated to return.
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The bad news, of course, is that this cannot last forever. With no new content coming, these numbers will have to decline in time, as a live game with no live updates can only do so much to keep players engaged. But when I say the game is healthy, I mean more than just the numbers.
Destiny 2, as a whole, is in the best state it’s been in years, namely due to the loot chase that’s been added. Ever since the new Tier system was introduced, 80% of the game was giving outdated loot, but Bungie has updated close to every activity to give out meaningful rewards, ranging from new and left-behind weapons, which includes every raid and dungeon, and tons of armor sets with new, sometimes essential set bonuses. Plus, this is the most cosmetics the game has ever let players earn, with triumphs netting players a half dozen ornament sets per character. It’s wild.
The problem, of course, is that a lot of this is being driven by a few factors regarding the end of the game, pumping up those figures:
1) You can now get everything in the game for cheap with the knowledge you are not going to miss out on future content, because there isn’t any.
2) There is a “one last ride” idea here that has brought old communities back to the fold in a way that may not have happened were this not the end.
3) Part of the reason that this update is so big is because at least some of this was pulled forward from the somewhat-completed Shattered Cycle expansion, so were the game continuing, we wouldn’t have gotten quite this much stuff (and I have no doubt some of those ornaments would have gone straight into Eververse).
The point, however, is despite that, you cannot argue that there is still not a huge amount of passion for Destiny 2, and Destiny as a franchise overall. Again, this is a game that was still hitting record highs two years ago, and the main reason playercount dropped so sharply was yes, some bad decisions with post-launch content, but also way, way less dev support after layoffs and moves to Marathon, so there was only so much the remaining staff could do. The problem, however, is cost versus expectations, as even the record Final Shape supposedly “underperformed.” The cost/profit bar here is just way too high.
Still, the cancelation feels like a mistake. There should have been some way to make this work, whether that was continuing D2 or at least letting players know that after a conclusion like this, Destiny 3 was coming. Neither is the case. The hope is that this recent surge shows Sony they shouldn’t abandon the IP, but so far there’s no indication that anything has come of it. But just jump in and have the most fun with the game you will probably have had in years.
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