Destiny 2’s Steam player count hits over 300,000 for the first time ever with the launch of Lightfall

Over the past 24 hours, the number of concurrent players in Destiny 2 has reached a new all-time high. For the first time, more than 300,000 people were playing the game simultaneously, beating the previous record for concurrent players that was set in October 2019, when the game first came to Steam.

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The new peak concurrent player count for Destiny 2, set in the last 24 hours thanks to the simultaneous launch of the Lightfall expansion and Season of Defiance, is 316,651 players. This data comes from Steam Charts, a website that tracks the most popular games on Steam and the number of people playing them. Data only goes back to October 2019 because that’s when Destiny 2 came to Steam. Even those secondary launch numbers were below what Lightfall has achieved at 292,314 players.

Player numbers started to rise just after the daily reset yesterday and peaked around midnight. Clearly, many people took the day off to be able to play the expansion as it launched, while the rest of the player base joined in when it could later in the day. There are bound to be a few very tired people heading into work or school today as a result.

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Destiny 2 Lightfall takes players to Neptune and its new location, Neomuna. There, players battle the forces of The Witness and Calus’ army as it scours the planet looking for The Veil. A new elemental power called Strand gives players the extra boost they need to take out the improved threats and fully explore the new location that’s been added to the game. This expansion sets up the events of the next year in Destiny 2, and all seasons from here on out will push it toward the next one that will launch in 2024.

In addition to Lightfall, Season of Defiance was also released. This new season follows a separate story to Lightfall, battling against Calus’ army on Earth where it’s capturing anyone it can find and sealing them away in Pyramid ships. Players need to infiltrate these ships and rescue key characters to fight back against Calus and The Witness.