Bungie announced on May 21 that it would be stopping active development for one of its most successful games ever, Destiny 2. Calling the move an evolution rather than a failure, the company noted that "the time had come for our shared worlds, and Destiny, to live beyond Destiny 2."
Destiny 2 content updates to stop in June
Bungie announced Destiny 2's social media handles that on June 9, 2026, it will release the final live-service content update for Destiny 2. The American video game company added that "while active development may be concluding, it will ensure that Destiny 2 remains playable, just as the original Destiny is today."
Read the full blog at https://t.co/z7FRRQH5zq
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) May 21, 2026
For almost twelve years, we have had the joy and honor to explore the Destiny universe with you all. Through all the ups and downs, surprises and triumphs, building Destiny alongside our players has been a monumental privilege. While… pic.twitter.com/w7sCgBexyw
Destiny 2 was released at the end of 2017 as a follow-up to the highly successful original title of the same name, which came out in 2014. Since then, the second part has been a major player in the video gaming space, even enjoying an all-time peak of 23,143 channels in 2023 on Twitch, according to Streams Charts.
The title reached this peak channel mark thanks to the global launch day for the "Vow of the Disciple" raid, kicking off the worldwide competition to crown the first fireteam to complete it. This raid also capped off the game's sixth expansion, The Witch Queen, which was launched a month earlier in February.
Bungie added in its statement that after the release of 2024's The Final Shape expansion, it became clear that it was time to move on to other projects. Moreover, many changes coming with the era-ending June update "will aim to ensure that Destiny 2 is a welcoming place for players to return to."
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Marathon under fire from Destiny 2 fans
The announcement was met with widespread displeasure from Destiny 2 fans worldwide. Many of them turned their anger and frustration towards Marathon, Bungie's latest project that had its own issues ahead of a full launch earlier this year.
A multiplayer extraction shooter, Marathon is the first new entry in Bungie's original series of the same name since Marathon Infinity was released in 1996. It enjoyed quite the launch on Twitch, becoming the platform's second most popular game on its release day.
However, Destiny fans back then were unhappy as Bungie would have to split focus and attention between their favorite game and the latest title. Now that Destiny 2 will not be getting updates anymore, many of them took to social media to blame Marathon for this move.
Destiny 2 fans even went as far as to review bomb Marathon to vent their frustration. A slew of negative reviews bombarded the action-first-person video game's Steam page, with many users openly blaming the Marathon for Destiny 2's supposed demise.
It has to be noted that Bungie has not said anywhere that the decision to stop updating Destiny 2 came due to a change in focus toward Marathon or other upcoming games. However, a report from Bloomberg revealed that the developer could make "significant" layoffs while also not directly moving to create Destiny 3, adding to the displeasure among fans of the Destiny universe.
Viewership statistics for Destiny 2 in 2026
Destiny 2 accumulated over 6.2 million Hours Watched (HW) on Twitch in 2026, with a peak of 32,195 viewers. While other legacy games put up much higher numbers, the title had built a loyal fanbase for itself, with frequent DLCs and expansions keeping things fresh and interesting for these players.
Directly compared to Marathon, which released on March 5, Destiny 2’s numbers have been much lower. In just shy of three months, the new Bungie title has put up almost four times more watch hours and sits proudly among the most popular video game launches of 2026 on the purple platform with 351,747 Peak Viewers (PV).
After nine years, and almost a dozen if the first game is counted, Destiny 2 fans will have to say goodbye to a game they grew to love despite a bumpy ride. However, while Bungie might have moved on to other projects, the game will remain available in its current state, a reminder of a simpler time when livestreaming and social media metrics did not have that big a bearing on the health of video games.
Header image via Steam