If player dataminers are right, Destiny 2 is in trouble, and I’m not talking about the ongoing Eververse rioting.
Destiny 2 player and Redditor stevetheimpact collected data from roughly a tenth the playerbase between launch and the end of 2017 by scraping Bungie’s API for unique members and their last date played.
“Total player count dropped from 1,307,165 to 321,843 from launch to the end of the year, which is a drop of 75.37%,” he posted last night. “PS4 player count dropped from 712,431 to 158,523, which is a drop of 77.74%. XBox player count dropped from 594,987 to 127,428, which is a drop of 78.58%. PC player count dropped from 194,607 to 35,892, which is a drop of 81.55%.”
stevetheimpact does admit that his data represent only a sample of the total player population and aren’t 100% accurate. The raw data have been made available for anyone who wants to parse them.
Redditors have also pointed out that Bungie is currently hiring for a new Head of Narrative Development. Adding even more perspective to what’s going on over there, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier has spoken out about a big reboot of Destiny 2 undertaken during the game’s development and claims that the contentious Eververse cash shop was Bungie’s, not Activision’s, idea.
