Destiny 2: The Edge of Fatereleased yesterday, heralding a new era for Destiny 2. Rather than the old format which features four seasons over the course of a year, Destiny 2 will now have two major expansions a year instead.
The Edge of Fate is the first expansion in the Year of Prophecy, but players don’t appear to be resonating with Destiny 2’s newest offering (nice spot,GamesRadar+).
The Edge of Fate Hasn’t Brought Back Lapsed Players
The Edge of Fate has only attracteda peak concurrent player countof 99,000 on Steam. Considering the game hovered between 20,000 and 40,000 concurrent players prior to the expansion’s release, there’s no doubt that a large proportion of players are returning to play The Edge of Fate.
However, the release of previous expansions attracted far more returning players than The Edge of Fate. For instance, Destiny 2: The Final Shape released in June 2024 and saw a peak player count of 314,000. Before that, Destiny 2: Lightfall, panned as one of the game’s worst expansions, broke the peak concurrent player count record with 316,750 players.
The Witch Queen which released in 2022 hit over 290,000, and Beyond Light managed 240,000. The underperformance of The Edge of Fate is unprecedented, and compounds Bungie’s growing list of problems.
The next major expansion, Renegades, is set to release in December and is heavily inspired by Star Wars (but isn’t a direct crossover). If Bungie can’t win back lapsed players in the interim, they could be in for another disappointment at the end of the year.
This is the next in a long line of subsequent problems for Bungie,which laid off 220 employees last year. Bungie’s upcoming hero shooter Marathon is also in dire straits, with a closed alpha play test earlier this year having been widely criticised by participants.
In light of this feedback,along with a controversy surrounding plagiarised assets,Bungie decided to delay Marathon. A new release date is supposed to be forthcoming later this year, and Bungie has stopped marketing the game for the time being.
Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate is currently live on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.
