Destiny 2 player count increased due to the release of the Lightfall expansion

Just hours into the Lightfall era, Destiny 2 has quickly broken its all-time player count record on PC as thousands of Guardians storm Neomuna.

Although Destiny is nearing the end of its first full decade, having released in 2014, the popularity of Bungie’s hit FPS has never been well received. With each new expansion comes an increase in interest and Lightfall has proven to be the biggest yet.

Since Destiny 2 arrived on Steam in 2019, the game has experienced a series of online peaks and valleys with each major content release. Until today, the beginning of 2022 marked the biggest month for the franchise on PC thanks to the arrival of Savathun in the Witch Queen update, 289,000 players jumped in at once to celebrate the launch. Now, however, his presence has been overtaken by the imminent threat of The Witness in the Lightfall expansion.

Just hours after it became available, Destiny 2 recorded a new all-time spike in player numbers, at least on PC. Over 316,000 Guardians have already signed up as of this writing, and that number is only continuing to grow on day one.

Obviously, it’s worth keeping in mind that this particular number only takes Destiny 2 players on Steam into account. While it’s a new record for the platform, there’s a chance PC may have seen busier days on BattleNet, leading up to the trade. Plus, we can’t gauge interest in consoles either, so there’s no telling if Lightfall’s release is a truly historic day across the board just yet.