Destiny 2 player count increased in 2023 despite complaints

Destiny 2: Lightfall, has experienced an increased player count in 2023 compared to The Witch Queen in 2022. This is in the wake of disgruntled players who’ve been making noise about their dissatisfaction with the state of the game recently.

In a recent Tweet, YouTuber Shadow posted a comparison between the number of players in Lightfall and The Witch Queen. As of April 29, according to Warmind.io, Lightfall had 1.1 million players across all platforms, whereas The Witch Queen had 806,900 during the same time period.

Say what you want about Lightfall, but the Destiny 2 population is significantly higher this year compared to 2022 (so far) pic.twitter.com/9xJUymf0D1

— Shadow (@ltzShadow) May 7, 2023

This is an increase of around 300,000. Interestingly this revelation comes even though seasoned players have criticized Lightfall for being a disappointment. Despite the complaints, it seems, it hasn’t affected the number of players playing Destiny.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is much more accessible than The Witch Queen

Since its February release, Destiny 2: Lightfall has been under fire from players. The initial complaints arose regarding the story of the expansion, with many stating that it felt incomplete and failed to answer any questions regarding The Witness or The Veil.

Some were also frustrated with the Root of Nightmares raid, saying that even the notoriously difficult Contest Mode challenge was too easy. It was completed in around two hours, had the highest ever clears in Contest mode, and now has had multiple solo flawless runs from the community.

There’ve also been complaints regarding bugs, crashes, characters getting deleted, the poor state of Gambit, and much more. In fact, Destiny 3 started trending on Twitter towards the end of April, as players started to suggest that the game needed a sequel.

Bungie

However, these complaints have had little impact on the player count it seems. Though it’s impossible to say, the game becoming more approachable might be a contributing factor.

In Lightfall, build crafting has become easier than ever since Bungie reworked the system. If you have a Warlock with a Starfire Protocol then you can excel at damaging bosses with Fusion Grenade spam.

Grandmaster Nightfalls have also become more accessible since the power level requirement has been reduced. Lastly, some might be disappointed with Root of Nightmares when compared to Last Wish or Vow of the Disciple, but it’s a great introductory raid for new players.

The accessibility makes it much easier to level up and take part in end-game content, especially for those who rely on LFG groups. All of this could help explain why the game is performing so well at the moment, even though there are loud complaints by certain players in the game