{"id":1043063,"date":"2026-06-22T15:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1043063\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:19:18","slug":"destiny-2s-skyrocketing-numbers-are-more-than-just-a-finale-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1043063\/","title":{"rendered":"Destiny 2\u2019s Skyrocketing Numbers Are More Than Just A Finale Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" top-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782141558_763_0x0.jpg\" alt=\"20260619224738_1\" data-height=\"1440\" data-width=\"3440\" fetchpriority=\"high\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Destiny 2 is about to achieve something significant. Its final update is about to have over <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/1085660\/charts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/1085660\/charts\/\" aria-label=\"100,000 concurrent Steam players\">100,000 concurrent Steam players<\/a> for two weeks straight, a feat we have not seen in over two years, and not even with any of the season\/expansion launches since The Final Shape itself. Even then, the drop off was steeper.<\/p>\n<p>Many are observing this <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2026\/06\/19\/sonys-destiny-2-obliteration-has-almost-no-precedent-in-the-industry\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2026\/06\/19\/sonys-destiny-2-obliteration-has-almost-no-precedent-in-the-industry\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"phenomenon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">phenomenon <\/a>from the outside, saying, \u201cWell, of course the numbers are good, it\u2019s the last update of the game,\u201d though at this point it seems pretty clear it\u2019s more than that.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind, this is a new Destiny 2 addition that is not even close to an expansion. It\u2019s not even a season launch. There is a single new exotic mission, and the rest of it is loot updates and progression changes.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, the final update factor is there, but the main observable thing here is that Bungie \u201cfixed\u201d the game, right at the last possible moment. How?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Breadth of Activities <\/strong>\u2013 A key here was making almost every activity in the game worth playing again. When the Edge of Fate hit and the Portal launched with this new tiered gear system, 80% of the game didn\u2019t even have it, meaning things like all old raids and dungeons were giving out old gear. Now, every raid and dungeon was updated with relevant loot in a single release, and Bungie went so far as to even update things like the Shadowkeep-era Altars of Sorrow, it\u2019s wild. I think I have found just a single activity that hasn\u2019t been updated, Dares of Eternity (Update: actually, this still counts, because that gear is Tier 5 craftable). Past that, almost everything is worth playing and has at least a few things to pursue.<\/p>\n<p>Play Puzzles &amp; Games on Forbes<\/p>\n<p><strong>Loot Tiers \u2013<\/strong> This was mostly fixed as well. Yes, everyone still wants Tier 5 everything, but this update brought the ability to upgrade a lot of old loot to be the equivalent of Tier 5, and in addition to that, no longer made lower tiers utterly worthless, given the ability to upgrade them as well. But with six perk options and some shiny versions, baseline Tier 5s are still worth pursuing as well. This \u201cfinal form\u201d update works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Portal <\/strong>\u2013 Well, they\u2019re not calling it that anymore, that\u2019s for sure. The menu has been returned to the director, and what was the Portal is just a streamlined way to play activities and farm loot, erasing much of the complicated math of letter tiers and gear hunting. The seasonal page remains in place with the bounty and order system, and that was never really an issue. The organization of the game is leagues better than it was when Edge of Fate launched.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Power Level <\/strong>\u2013 No more climb. At least not one that matters. Power was slowly being erased before this, but now almost everything is a set delta, meaning a lot less fomo for lapsed players who do not have to do some annoying grind to catch up. Hell, you can play most activities with your old gear at 10 power.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Builds <\/strong>\u2013 The unleashing of the set of Artifacts, plus the addition of armor sets, has made this the most expansive build crafting that the game has experienced in its lifespan. Just in time for there to be no content to play, of course. This also inadvertently fixed the annoying champion situation where, with no dedicated seasonal artifact mods, every gun now has some sort of champion assignment, making that long-running system less annoying and better able to blend with banes.<\/p>\n<p>More than being some grand finale, players are playing Destiny 2 right now, and sticking with it, because the game is fun. More fun than it\u2019s been in years, and that\u2019s with 95% of what we\u2019re playing here being often-lamented recycled content.<\/p>\n<p>A key here was generosity. All this work to give out all this relevant loot, and on top of that, a bunch of earned cosmetics that would have been shoved into Eververse. Yes, this is an \u201cfire all the guns\u201d update, which took some things from future releases, but imagine if Destiny had its old development team back rather than a third of what it once was. This current setup combined with actual, substantive new content? The game would be healthy.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s too late. The decision is made, the layoffs or coming. I\u2019ve heard nothing about any sort of decision reversal despite these numbers, despite player sentiment. Players, of course, continue to grumble about Marathon, a game that will now become Bungie\u2019s main focus, which has declined since launch and now has 10% of Destiny\u2019s players after this update.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just sad that Destiny\u2019s ending, it\u2019s sad that it\u2019s ending with the game in its best state in years, but nothing else coming to take advantage of it. These numbers will not hold forever, of course. Declines are inevitable, but when you simply stop making content for a live game, it will eventually disintegrate. But it deserved better. Bungie could have pulled it off with more time and more resources. Or at least shown what they could have done for a Destiny 3, lessons learned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow me <\/strong><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PaulTassi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/twitter.com\/PaulTassi\" aria-label=\"on Twitter\"><strong data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/twitter.com\/PaulTassi\">on Twitter<\/strong><\/a><strong>, <\/strong><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCg6K8i6OGobyZNoPIsCW9uQ?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCg6K8i6OGobyZNoPIsCW9uQ?sub_confirmation=1\" aria-label=\"YouTube\"><strong data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCg6K8i6OGobyZNoPIsCW9uQ?sub_confirmation=1\">YouTube<\/strong><\/a><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCg6K8i6OGobyZNoPIsCW9uQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCg6K8i6OGobyZNoPIsCW9uQ\" aria-label=\",\"><strong data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCg6K8i6OGobyZNoPIsCW9uQ\">,<\/strong><\/a> <strong>and <\/strong><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/paul.tassi\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/paul.tassi\/?hl=en\" aria-label=\"Instagram\"><strong data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/paul.tassi\/?hl=en\">Instagram<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pick up my sci-fi novels the <\/strong><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B08G1MRFTM?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tkin&amp;binding=kindle_edition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B08G1MRFTM?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tkin&amp;binding=kindle_edition\" aria-label=\"Herokiller series\"><strong data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B08G1MRFTM?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tkin&amp;binding=kindle_edition\">Herokiller series<\/strong><\/a> <strong>and <\/strong><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B08KYDGG73?binding=paperback&amp;ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B08KYDGG73?binding=paperback&amp;ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk\" aria-label=\"The Earthborn Trilogy\"><strong data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B08KYDGG73?binding=paperback&amp;ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk\">The Earthborn Trilogy<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Destiny 2 is about to achieve something significant. Its final update is about to have over 100,000 concurrent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1043064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[6958,32619,6957,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-1043063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-bungie","tag-destiny-2","tag-marathon","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116794436379353910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}