By Sagar V. Mankar Destiny 2’s competitive PvP mode, Trials of Osiris, has long been a battleground for the game’s most skilled players. However, recent data suggests a significant drop in player participation.
According to Trials Report, as noted by The Gamepost, the weekend ending August 20 saw only 109,449 players take part in Trials of Osiris. This marks an 8% decline from the previous week and is the lowest player count the mode has seen in three years. To put this into perspective, the last time player numbers were this low was in August 2021, with just 95,929 players participating in Trials.
This decline is particularly concerning given that the game received a new expansion, The Final Shape, just two months ago. Typically, new content boosts player engagement, but in this case, it seems to have had little impact on Trials participation.
What’s Behind the Decline?
Several factors seem to be driving the reduced interest in Trials of Osiris:
- Community Frustrations: Since The Final Shape expansion, players have voiced complaints about various issues, including, Fireteam Matchmaking, Current Meta, and Cheating.
- Lack of New Rewards: Casual players who typically participate in Trials to farm meta weapons are finding little incentive to play. Since the newest expansion launched, only one new weapon, Aisha’s Care, has been added to the loot pool. Although three guns were reissued, this hasn’t been enough to draw players in.
- No New Cosmetics: The Echoes expansion didn’t introduce any new armor sets to Trials, leaving no new cosmetics for players to chase.
Whole Destiny 2 Falling
Unfortunately, the decline isn’t isolated to Trials of Osiris. Destiny 2’s overall player base has also seen a sharp decrease. According to Steam charts, Destiny 2 attracted an average of just 42,343 Steam users over the last 30 days, representing a 32% decrease from July and a staggering 65% drop from June.
Several key issues are contributing to this drop in interest:
- Lack of Re-entry Points: New or returning players struggle with content locked behind past seasons or activities that are no longer available.
- Difficulty Learning Raid Mechanics: Players are frustrated by the inability to learn raid mechanics solo, forcing them to rely on Twitch streams or groups that demand prior knowledge.
- High Costs: The cost of DLCs and Eververse items makes it difficult for players to keep up with events and post-DLC content without a fireteam.
- Fireteam Dependency: Much of the endgame content requires fireteams, alienating solo players who don’t have a regular group to team up with.
- Negative Community Sentiment: Recent layoffs at Bungie have contributed to negative feelings within the community.
- Leadership Failures: Ongoing frustrations with leadership decisions have hindered the game’s progress, despite its creative potential.
- Need for Long-term Planning: Players are calling for a clear, long-term plan to support Destiny, possibly with a new title or rebranding.
- Core Game Mode Issues: Core game modes like 6v6 and 3v3 PvP, strikes, and Gambit are seen as unengaging and in need of improvement.
- Reinvestment in Destiny 2: Players feel that more of Bungie’s earnings should be reinvested into Destiny 2 to develop it into the game it should be.
Looking Ahead
Despite these challenges, Bungie isn’t giving up on Destiny 2. The upcoming content in Echoes Act 3 promises one of the game’s biggest exotic missions yet, featuring some brand-new content to the game, including new weapons, cosmetics, and activities. It is starting next week on August 27. This could be what the game needs now to regenerate its falling player base.
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