Destiny 2’s player numbers have fallen to their lowest point in years, and now, one of the game’s biggest streamers lays out two tough paths he believes Bungie must take to turn things around.
Destiny 2 is in a rough place right now. Steam data show the game averaging just under 18,500 players over the past 30 days, which is the lowest average since launching on the platform in 2019. The number follows months of decline after The Edge of Fate expansion, which rolled out sweeping system-wide changes that overhauled the grind with the new Portal system.
Many longtime players feel the new systems are too grindy and complex. On top of that, the new content rollout lately has been smaller in scale compared to past expansions.
Now, one of Destiny’s biggest content creators, Aztecross, has shared his honest take on how Bungie can turn things around. In a new video titled “We’ve hit rock bottom,” the streamer talked about the state of the game, the record-low player numbers, and what he believes Bungie needs to do to save Destiny 2, or rather, the franchise.
Aztecross Says Bungie Has “Two Routes” to Fix Destiny 2
In a recent video reacting to the game’s record-low player counts, Aztecross said the situation has gotten so bad that Bungie only has two real options left. “I’ve gotten so many comments like, ‘Cross, way to keep doom posting,'” he said. “It’s bad. This isn’t even doom posting anymore, it’s just reality.”
He says there are only two ways Bungie can rebuild trust and keep Destiny alive long-term. “I have been sitting down and just contemplating over the past 48 hours on what can be done,” he said. “There’s only two routes you can go, and neither one of them are easy. Matter of fact, they’re both going to be hell, but it’s better than the alternative, which is everything just dying.”
The first, he says, is to make Destiny 3, a true sequel that starts fresh, but only if Bungie can avoid repeating past mistakes. “You’ve got to do a D3,” he said. “That’s many years out, and the expectations will be so high, and if you f*** that up, done. There’s no coming back from that. You cannot have a D2 vanilla launch for D3. It’ll never happen.”
The second option, according to him, is to build a Destiny Classic, a separate, community-driven version of the game, overseen by a different director, similar to Old School RuneScape. It would use in-game polls to decide updates, run on a simple subscription model, and ditch microtransactions altogether. “Everything that was ever updated in [Old School RuneScape] had in-game polls, and it was completely community-driven,” he said, referencing RuneScape. “I think a Destiny Classic would be pretty good if it was done right. I would play it.”
Aztecross says Bungie’s recent course corrections, like canceling the planned Seasonal Power reset and carrying over Unstable Cores into Renegades, show the studio “knows it’s bad,” but believes these small fixes won’t be enough without a long-term plan
As of now, there’s no sign of a Destiny 3 in development, not officially, and not even rumored. And considering Bungie’s smaller team size after two rounds of layoffs, that possibility seems unlikely in the near future.
In related news, Bungie just released a new Exotic mission in Destiny 2 called Heliostat, which rewards the Wolfsbane Exotic axe. But so far, many in the community are calling it underwhelming at best, which is also not a good sign.
What do you think? Should Bungie risk it all on a sequel? Would a Destiny Classic mode work? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
