Is Destiny 2 Worth Playing in 2026? The Comprehensive Guide for New and Returning Guardians
Yes, Destiny 2 is absolutely worth playing and getting invested in during 2022 and beyond.
With the outstanding Witch Queen expansion, Destiny 2 is in one of the best states it‘s ever been for both casual gamers and hardcore grinders. The fun FPS gameplay, endless progression systems, best-in-class raiding scene, and constant influx of seasonal content create an engaging hobby that you can play for hundreds or even thousands of hours.
Let‘s take a comprehensive, in-depth look at every aspect of Destiny 2 to see why it‘s worth playing in 2022 whether you‘re a new light or returning veteran.
Destiny 2‘s Playerbase and Revenue Proves the Game is Still Thriving
As of August 2022, Destiny 2 continues to have an impressively large and active player base across all platforms:
- 1.16 million daily players
- 5.7 million monthly players
- Over 42 million registered players life-to-date
For comparison, these figures put Destiny 2 on par with or above competitive online multiplayer games like CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege.
Destiny 2 also consistently ranks among the top grossing console games month after month with an estimated $300-400 million in annual revenue, powered by expansions and seasonal content sales.
The launch of the Witch Queen expansion in February 2022 drew even more new players into the game, making it a top 10 best-selling game of the year so far.
All of this points to a game with incredible longevity thanks to Bungie‘s live service model and engagement with the community.
Destiny 2 Player Count and Revenue
| Daily Players | Monthly Players | Revenue | All-Time Registered |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.16 million | 5.7 million | $300-400 million per year | Over 42 million |
Post-Witch Queen State of the Game Is Excellent
The February 2022 launch of the Witch Queen expansion and Season of the Risen improved Destiny 2 tremendously based on community feedback and reception.
Here are some of the most notable changes:
- The Throne World destination offers some of the best visuals the game has ever had.
- Savathun‘s story campaign provides deeper lore and a cinematic narrative experience.
- The Legendary difficulty campaign provides a hardcore option for top players.
- Void 3.0 overhauled the Void subclasses with new build options.
- Weapon crafting lets you target farm and customize your perfect rolls.
- The Vow of the Disciple raid introduces stunning new environments and mechanics.
- Season of the Haunted brought back fan-favorite dungeon Prophecy.
- Many smart quality-of-life improvements to UI, maps, matchmaking, etc.
- Continued focus on build diversity through Aspects, Fragments, and armor mods.
- Excellent roadmap for future content updates through 2023.
Most Popular Destiny 2 Raids
Based on clears tracked by RaidReport.
| Raid | Total Clears |
|---|---|
| Vault of Glass | 15.1 million |
| Deep Stone Crypt | 7.6 million |
| Garden of Salvation | 6.3 million |
| Last Wish | 4.8 million |
| Vow of the Disciple | 4.2 million |
Progression Systems Keep You Playing for Hundreds of Hours
Destiny 2‘s progression systems like power levels, seasonal artifact power bonuses, triumphs, crafting patterns, and more give you a constant stream of goals to work towards over hundreds of hours:
- The seasonal power cap grind will take casual players dozens of hours to hit the pinnacle cap.
- Unlocking all artifact mods and leveling the artifact takes significant investment each season.
- Exotic quests like Dead Messenger and Parasite take hours to complete.
- Crafting a single weapon to level 30 takes weeks for casual players.
- Triumphs offer long-term challenges like solo flawless dungeons.
- Collecting seals and gilding titles takes tremendous time and skill.
- Building up collections of exotics, god roll weapons and high stat armor keeps you chasing loot.
Destiny 2 Power Level Caps
| Cap | Level | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Soft cap | 1550 | All drops from any activity will help you reach this level |
| Powerful cap | 1560 | Weekly challenges, playlists, rewards |
| Pinnacle cap | 1570 | Pinnacle drops from endgame activities |
Some of the Best Gunplay and Build Crafting in FPS Games
The excellent first-person shooting mechanics combined with deep RPG build crafting gives Destiny 2 an incredible amount of gameplay depth.
Shooting guns in Destiny 2 just feels fantastic thanks to the excellent sound design, visual effects, recoil patterns, and diverse weapon archetypes. Landing those crisp headshots provides an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop.
When you combine the stellar gunplay with the ability to customize every aspect of your Guardian through subclasses, exotics, mods, and stats, you have near endless ways to play:
- Exotics like Mask of Bakris, Cuirass of the Falling Star, and Omnioculus enable wild build options.
- Elemental Wells, CWL, Warmind Cells give creative synergies.
- Pursuing the perfect stat splits like 100 Recovery on your armor.
- Unique raid mods like Protective Light change your playstyle.
- Thousands of weapon perk combinations to optimize damage per second (DPS).
Top 5 PvE Exotic Weapons
Based on usage rates across all raids:
- Witherhoard
- Anarchy
- Izanagi‘s Burden
- Gjallarhorn
- Divinity
Activities for All Playstyles – PvE, PvP, Solo, Group
One of Destiny 2‘s biggest strengths is the variety of activity types that appeal to different players‘ preferences:
PvE
- Story campaigns – Compelling narratives and cinematic missions.
- Strikes – Jump in and complete 3 player mini missions with matchmaking.
- Nightfalls – Challenging strike variants with special rewards.
- Dungeons – 3 player activities with mid-raid level difficulty.
- Raids – 6 player pinnacle cooperative activities with intricate mechanics. Require communication and teamwork.
- Public Events – Join public events on destination maps with other random players.
- Lost Sectors – Short missions you can complete solo.
PvP
- Crucible – Competitive and casual playlists for Guardian vs Guardian combat.
- Trials of Osiris – Hardcore 3v3 mode and pinnacle PvP activity. Requires flawless passage for best rewards.
- Iron Banner – Special limited time 6v6 control playlist with level advantages enabled.
- Gambit – PvEvP hybrid mode where you fight enemies PvE style and other guardians PvP style simultaneously.
Solo
- Campaign missions – All story content can be played solo.
- Lost Sectors – Meant for solo players.
- Many exotic quests.
Group
- Dungeons
- Raids
- Higher difficulty Nightfalls
- Trials of Osiris
- Iron Banner
Accessibility for New Players
Getting into Destiny 2 is easy for new players thanks to the F2P New Light experience. All Year 1 destinations – EDZ, Nessus, Titan, IO – and the original Leviathan raid are free. This lets you try core activities like strikes, Crucible, and Gambit to see if you enjoy the gameplay before purchasing expansions.
The gameplay loop of shooting and looting is instantly enjoyable and doesn‘t require any prior FPS or RPG experience. Objectives are clearly marked on your HUD and other players can revive you if you get downed.
If you do decide to purchase expansions, the Legendary campaign and revamped new light quests make getting up to speed much smoother. Destiny 2 also has thousands of helpful guides from passionate players on how to optimize your power progression and take on endgame activities.
Getting Started in Destiny 2
Here are some tips for new players or those returning after a long break on getting up to speed in Destiny 2:
- Try all classes before picking your favorite. Hunter, Titan, and Warlock all provide unique playstyles.
- Focus on completing the main story campaigns before tackling harder endgame content.
- Join an active clan to find friends to play with – it makes Destiny 2 way more fun. The app and r/Fireteams are great for finding groups.
- Pick up DLCs like Beyond Light and Witch Queen when they go on sale to get access to stasis, crafting, and latest raids.
- Use DestinyItemManager and similar apps to easily transfer weapons/gear between characters.
- Read/watch guides to help optimize your character‘s power level progression.
- Don‘t feel overwhelmed by all the currency types, upgrade materials, etc. Plenty of resources explain them.
- Experiment with different weapons and abilities to find a fun loadout that matches your preferred playstyle.
Bungie‘s Ambitious Future Plans for Destiny 2
With Destiny 2 supported through at least 2024, Bungie has exciting plans to build on the universe through more expansions and evolving seasonal content:
- Lightfall arrives early 2023 set on Neptune‘s capital city Neomuna. Promises game changing Strand subclass.
- Final Shape concludes the current Light and Darkness saga in 2024 with a focus on concluding story arcs.
- Would not be surprising to see a Destiny 3 release in ~2025 or beyond on next gen only hardware for technical upgrades.
- Season 20 introduced creative space pirate/treasure hunting narrative theme and brought back popular King‘s Fall raid.
- Community seems widely happy with seasonal model vs previous underwhelming annual pass approach.
Based on their stellar track record, we can expect Bungie to continue delivering huge new features, activities, destinations, loot, and build options with each yearly expansion.
Why Destiny 2 Is a Must-Play Hobby For Shooter Fans
Destiny 2 stands in a league of its own as a shooter RPG hybrid that successfully merges Bungie‘s trademark excellent FPS gameplay with persistent MMO-like progression, loot, and social features.
Getting hooked on the gameplay loop of shooting aliens and chasing sweet new gear is virtually inevitable. The raids offer some of the most intense and memorable cooperative experiences in all of gaming – beating a final boss after 100+ collective tries with your clanmates forges bonds and triumphant highs that few other games can match.
If you enjoy shooters at all and have the patience for complexity, you owe it to yourself to dive into the incredibly fun and rewarding hobby that is Destiny 2 in 2022. Hope to see you star side!