Destiny 2‘s new The Edge of Fate expansion struggled to capture fans’ hearts ahead of its release, and that disinterest translated into a drastic drop in its player count. The update peaked at just under 100,000 Steam players on launch day—the worst performance for an expansion so far.
Destiny 2 boasted a peak of only 99,131 players on July 15, when the expansion released. Previous DLCs had far bigger numbers: Last year’s The Final Shape had over 300,000 players at its peak, while the disastrous Lightfall also crossed that threshold in 2023. In February 2022, The Witch Queen peaked at 289,895 players, according to tracking website SteamCharts (as spotted by Forbes’ Paul Tassi).

The Edge of Fate already faced an uphill battle. Player reception to the new Fate saga didn’t seem as strong after a lull in content and a myriad of systemic changes, including the creation of armor and weapon tiers, bonuses to recent gear, and vague promises about the future of crafting.
Even the time-limited Rite of the Nine event largely failed to warm up the player base long-term. Inspired by the highly successful Pantheon event from Into the Light, the dungeon-based challenge gave Destiny 2 a short-lived burst of activity before it dwindled again. This could be partly attributed to how the studio communicated about the new weapon tiers, potentially creating confusion concerning the effectiveness of the event guns in The Edge of Fate‘s new sandbox.
The Edge of Fate‘s player count is a symptom of a long-embattled Bungie, facing two sets of layoffs between 2023 and 2024, plus lukewarm reception to most of the recent content and huge dissatisfaction throughout the year of The Final Shape.
Despite the dwindling player count, though, the new expansion still ranked among Steam’s top sellers and gave a huge bump to the average player count for the time being. With the key changes coming with Edge of Fate, though—including the discontinuation of seasonal content as we knew it—it remains to be seen how the game will fare in the new Fate saga.
Published: Jul 16, 2025 01:53 pm