[STEAM] Destiny 2’s Steam player count nearly doubled with Guardian Games, but it’s still depressingly low

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Any developer would be happy to see the player count for one of its games double, and with Guardian Games, Bungie stumbled upon that scenario. This would have been amazing news for Destiny 2—if it weren't so sad.

The release of Guardian Games 2026 pushed Destiny 2's Steam player count to the peak of 14,030 players when it launched on Tuesday. It's a vast improvement over the 7,933 guardians

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points out it had 205,177 unique players yesterday, up from 161,129 on Monday.

Yet, it's a grim display of how drastic the game's situation really is. This time last year, Destiny 2 averaged 30,967 daily Steam users, going strong off its third episode, Heresy. In March 2024, going off the disastrous year of Lightfall and before Into the Light, that monthly average on Steam was almost 40,000 players, and popularity.report lists the biggest single-day peak at 633,306 guardians.

If we go back further to 2022, even Season of Plunder—almost unanimously one of its worst-ever seasons,

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—averaged 40,000 monthly on Steam and had, at its worst, just under 600,000 daily unique players.

At the time, it was basically sounding the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse. Nowadays, Bungie would have to tithe to a Hive god or two to get these numbers.

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If you told me I'd miss this moment, I would've laughed at you. Screenshot by Destructoid Destiny 2 has been on a steep downward slope, particularly after the release of The Edge of Fate last July. The highly controversial Portal was one of

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, in addition to an ill-received campaign.

The damage seems to be done: even the Star Wars-themed Renegades couldn't hold players for long. The

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was another nail in the coffin of a game drawing in too much water.

Parts of the community hold the perception (misguided or not) that Bungie has been neglecting Destiny 2 to focus on Marathon, its newly released sweetheart. To some, it's either helpless to stop the game's decline or happy to watch it fail. Talk about alienating a player base.

Bungie has pulled miracles out of thin air before, of course. Into the Light was the latest of them, and potentially the last. The studio has changed since—in leadership, in vision for Destiny 2, and in sheer manpower. Stopping Destiny 2's hemorrhage would require more than just one fluke, more than "we're listenings" and promised roadmaps; catch lightning in a bottle two or three times and then maybe the situation can turn around. Until then, the player count may continue to "double" into the low five figures or less.

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