'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEI/8QAFAEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAv/aAAwDAQACEAMQAAAAzbAL/8QAHBAAAgICAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQIDBQASERMx/9oACAEBAAE/AKuxmrkk6JHUOATr6Dzkt1PJI7sBsxJOf//EABYRAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABEv/aAAgBAgEBPwCUf//EABYRAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABEv/aAAgBAwEBPwCmf//Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Destiny 2: Season of Plunder is the penultimate season in the Witch Queen DLC. With yet another season on the cards, the player count in the game has been dipping considerably for a while.
There are a few reasons behind this drop in player count. But before going on to them, it's worth noting that the Season of Plunder was somewhat different than the iterations previously seen.
The overall theme revolved around pirates. While the developers could have done a bit more in terms of inculcating the theme with the overall seasonal storyline, they managed to nail the visuals pretty well.
However, here are a few reasons why players haven't been coming to the game.
Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer.
Why are players avoiding Destiny 2: Season of Plunder?
There are a couple of reasons why players are somewhat staying away from the game. Before moving on, the only way to track the player count for this game is through Steam.
Although Destiny 2 is available on other platforms as well, it's rather difficult to get an overall player count from each and every platform. From all the data that is available, the player count numbers are with respect to what were seen on Steam itself.
While the number of players does keep changing over time, the dip was quite stark during Season of Plunder.
The reasons behind the drop in player count are as follows:
1) Old game
The game, in essence, is old. Released back in 2017, it is five years old at this point of time. Yes, it's come a long way ever since its release, but that does not change the fact that there are more modern day alternatives that are available.
While there's not much to complain in terms of graphics, the overall game does feel repetitive after a point of time. Despite the constant additions to the title, there had to be a decline at some point of time.
2) Release of other major titles
Destiny 2 does have its own fan base, yes, but there were a few heavy hitters that went live recently. The first one happens to be Overwatch 2. Despite being buggy at launch, the game managed to attract quite a lot of people.
The second prime rival is Modern Warfare 2. This title had been on the cards for a while now, and once the beta went live, players hopped on to get a first-hand experience. More fans hopped onto the game's hype train once the entire game went live.
Other than these two games, a few other titles went live as well, which could be one of the reasons that a lot of players stopped coming back to Destiny 2.
3) PvP
PvP has always been a sore spot for Bungie. For a long time, players have been continuously complaining about how unbalanced the PvP aspect has been in the game.
Off late, the developers have been introducing certain changes to the PvP segment, which will most likely bring a good number of players back to Destiny 2. Moreover, the mode has been stagnant for the most part of this season. The competitive segment has only seen Trials of Osiris over consecutive weekends.
Iron Banner was seen only once during this season. It's scheduled to go live on November 11 once again, but that's about it. Given that the mode has been absent for so long, it's understandable why players wouldn't be interested in it either.
Lastly, matchmaking continues to be an issue in PvP. Although Bungie did talk about introducing some loose SBMM in the Crucible, it still seems to be all over the place for now.
4) Lack of storytelling
The storytelling in Destiny 2 has been slow since the very beginning. The seasonal storyline gets new traction once every week. However, that too is very short, and is filled with completing repetitive activities.
While the overall storytime has increased over the past few seasons, it still doesn't feel enough. Truth be told, the storyline does feel like it's stagnating, which is one major aspect that does need a good rework.
The developers have done a good job when it comes to reworking the subclasses in the game, and now it's time to probably focus on some other things in the title as well.
5) The grind
Destiny 2, in essence, is an RPG. It's in the nature of each and every title in the genre to be labor-intensive, but the grind feels too tedious and boring here. The power creep is painful too. The seasonal activities are the same as well, and feel so repetitive that it's pretty much boring at this point of time.
Not only that, they don't feel that rewarding either. To make things worse, the raid that the developers added this season was reprised from the previous game. Overall, everything feels very repetitive, making player retention a difficult task for the developers.
These are some of the reasons that could be attributed to the low player numbers that were seen during Season of Plunder. With Destiny 2 Season 19 on the cards right now, it will be interesting to see how the numbers change once it drops.
Moreover, Lightfall is just one season away, and the developers have announced some major changes for it as well. It will be really interesting to see how everything pans out for the game in the coming few months.
