Destiny 2’s latest expansion, Edge of Fate, is now sitting at “Overwhelmingly Negative” recent reviews on Steam following the rocky Ash & Iron update launch and recent backlash over the Iron Banner armor situation.
It’s been a rough week for Destiny 2. Two months after the launch of Edge of Fate on July 15, Bungie dropped the free Ash & Iron update, a mid-season content drop adding the new Reclaim activity, new gear to unlock, and a long-awaited return to the Plaguelands. But what was supposed to be a fun refresh ended up making things even worse for an already frustrated player base.
Between game-breaking bugs, broken progression systems, and mounting anger over paid cosmetics, the mood has officially soured. While Edge of Fate was already struggling with mixed reception, the launch of Ash & Iron last week has kicked off one of the worst backlashes in recent Destiny history, and now, the Steam page reflects it.
Last month, we reported that Edge of Fate slipped to “Mostly Negative” recent reviews on Steam. Since Ash & Iron, things have gotten worse.
Recent Destiny 2 Edge of Fate Steam Reviews Hit “Overwhelmingly Negative”
As of this week, only 16% of the 254 recent Steam reviews for Edge of Fate are positive. That works out to just 41 positive reviews compared to a staggering 213 negative ones, a brutal drop since last month, when we reported the expansion had slipped into “Mostly Negative” territory.
And while the total reviews for Edge of Fate remain “Mostly Negative” overall, with 38% positive out of 1,854 total reviews, the trend is clearly going in the wrong direction. As for player numbers, here’s how Destiny 2 has been holding up on Steam since Edge of Fate launched:
- Edge of Fate launch day: 98,211 peak players
- The Desert Perpetual raid launch day: 108,535 peak players
- Ash & Iron launch day: 54,821 peak players
- Current peak today: 30,441 players
- Average over the last 30 days: 24,887 players
A big part of the issue? Ash & Iron, which arrived less than a week ago. But within hours, players were reporting major bugs, including Crucible matches ending at 7 kills, soft-locked missions, and the newly increased power level climb from 450 to 550 that was straight up broken for a while until Bungie pushed out a hotfix on Friday that fixed some of the issues.
The review bombing isn’t just about bugs. Players have also been frustrated with what they see as increasingly aggressive monetization, especially after recent armor drama. A set of concept art revealed that a brand-new armor originally designed with the Iron Banner sigil ended up being sold in the Eververse store instead, stripped of its branding, while the actual Iron Banner event gave players a 7-year-old reskin from the Warmind expansion.
At the same time, over a dozen new paid armor sets were added to the shop this season, totaling over $250 worth of cosmetics.
All of that, on top of the slow power climb, shallow activity rotation, and reward tuning issues, has even long-time players more frustrated than ever. Apart from this, Bungie recently revealed the Star Wars-themed expansion coming to Destiny 2 on December 2 called Renegades.
What do you think? Are you still holding out hope for Edge of Fate to bounce back, or has the game finally lost you? Let us know.
