All is not well in Destiny 2. Last month I detailed my many issues with the Edge of Fate expansion's new Portal—the disastrous replacement for the game's seasonal update model. Since then, nothing about the recent Ash & Iron update has persuaded me to return. And it's not just me: Bungie's recent moves have done nothing to stop players from leaving, at least if Steam's data is considered representative of the playerbase at large.
Yesterday, Destiny 2 posted its lowest daily peak concurrent player count in the game's history—16,067 players. That 'beats' the previous low of 18,023 back in the doldrums of Revenant—the last expansion cycle's worst episode.
It's worth remembering that peak daily concurrents offer us a very limited picture: The number of players simultaneously in-game during Destiny 2's busiest period. It doesn't tell us how many players actually logged into the game over the course of the day. Nor does it tell us what the game's population is on other platforms. It certainly gestures at something though—a snapshot of data that speaks to a game in decline, whatever the actual number of active players is.
For me it seems obvious—both from my own anecdotal experiences and the larger mood among the community—that the Portal in its current form is putting players off. As for how Bungie is responding to the downturn in both player numbers and morale, from the outside it appears to be scrambling. The most recent attempt to earn some goodwill is an announcement made yesterday that the extremely controversial plan to reset seasonal power when Renegades launches in December is now being deferred.
"Seasonal Power will now carry over into Season 28 in December," the Destiny 2 Team account posted to Bluesky. "There will not be a Seasonal Power reset as in past Seasons."
As we continue to develop Power and Progression changes for Destiny 2: Renegades, we'd like to announce the following changes: - Seasonal Power will now carry over into Season 28 in December. There will not be a Seasonal Power reset as in past Seasons.
— @destiny2team.bungie.net (@destiny2team.bungie.net.bsky.social) 2025-10-07T16:00:58.565Z
Seasonal power refers to any levels that you earn over 200, the current soft cap. Progressing past that point requires completing Portal activities; embarking on the agonisingly slow climb up to the current seasonal cap of 550. It's an important number, because your power level defines what tier of reward you're able to earn. Hence why players were particularly upset by the idea that, when Renegades launches this December, they would be reset back to 200 and forced to grind all over again.
It's one of a few recent decisions made to try and ease the many rough edges in the current Portal design. Last month, for instance, Bungie announced that any weapons or armour earned this season would retain the 'New Gear' bonus when Renegades launches—a change to the original plan of New Gear buffs only applying to that season's loot.
The obvious question becomes: What happens after Renegades? It's all very well slapping on an emergency band-aid, but this announcement is carefully worded in a way that gives no indication of how seasonal power will change in future seasons. It also isn't clear if we'll see a power cap increase in Renegades—if we do, and you can no longer earn tier five loot at 450+ power, there's very little effective difference between that and a reset in the first place.
Every week there seems to be some new attempt at placating players—just one more change to try to appease a community that has rejected a fundamentally flawed system.
Two weeks ago, Bungie announced a change to Portal challenge modifiers—an attempt to make the system "more accessible and more rewarding at all Power levels". But as part of this, the studio is introducing power deltas—fixed difficulty caps that lock under a certain power level—to everything in the Portal, not just matchmade Fireteam Ops.
This move should have been the final nail in the coffin for the power grind—it fully exposes it as an artificial block on players' ability to earn the gear they're chasing. If you can't outlevel an activity, power as defined by a number is rendered meaningless. Instead, though, these caps will exist alongside the power climb—the worst of both worlds.
For the last few weeks, Bungie has been hinting at a roadmap that plans to outline what the Portal will become on a longer timeline. This is going to be an absolutely critical moment if the studio wants to reassure the community that there is a plan in place that goes beyond short-term quick fixes that fail to address the root issues inherent to how Destiny 2 works right now.
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