Key Takeaways
- Destiny 2’s Monument of Triumph update on June 9 drove the game’s Steam concurrent player count past 100,000 within minutes, more than double Marathon’s all-time Steam peak of just over 88,000
- The player surge was so immediate and intense that SteamDB went down trying to track the milestone, and thousands of returning Guardians hit login errors on entry
- A community petition calling for Destiny 3 to be greenlit surpassed 350,000 signatures ahead of the update, the coordinated return was a deliberate message to both Bungie and Sony
- Marathon Season 2 had just launched alongside a free-to-play week, making the timing of Destiny 2’s player surge even more pointed
Nobody planned a farewell like this. When Bungie announced that June 9 would bring Destiny 2’s final content update, Monument of Triumph, the community did not go quietly.
Fans crashed the game’s servers and pushed Destiny 2 to a new Steam peak player count, surpassing Marathon’s all-time record of just over 88,000.
Within 20 minutes of the update going live, player numbers had climbed past 100,000 and were still rising at the time of writing.
SteamDB, the site tracking the surge, reportedly went down under the traffic load. For a game being put to rest, it could hardly have made a louder exit.
The irony is hard to miss, especially for those who saw how abruptly the decision reached Bungie’s own developers. Today’s numbers make that reality hit even harder.
The Marathon Comparison That Stings
The significance of the 100,000-player mark becomes clear when compared to Marathon. Bungie’s extraction shooter, the studio’s designated future, and the project that inherited much of Destiny 2’s development talent, peaked at just over 88,000 concurrent Steam players.
The gap is even wider than it appears. Destiny 2 has a much larger console audience than Steam, meaning its true concurrent player count across all platforms was significantly higher.
Marathon Season 2 had also just launched and benefited from a free week beforehand, making this its strongest possible comparison window. However, this surge lands with a poetic irony; arriving just as internal Bungie developers were abruptly informed that the MMO is ending.
Bungie’s decision to end Destiny 2 and pivot to Marathon was always going to be scrutinized. Today’s player numbers turn that scrutiny into hard data. Monument of Triumph has delivered a number of inside the studio likely expected.
350,000 Signatures and a Farewell That Was Never Meant to Feel Like One
The surge was not spontaneous. Ahead of the update, players organized around a clear goal: overwhelm Destiny 2’s servers as a message to Bungie and Sony, which is exiting 5 games this month from PS Plus, that demand for the franchise remains strong.
A petition calling for Destiny 3 had already surpassed 350,000 signatures, giving the community another powerful signal alongside today’s record player count.
Bungie reinforced the moment with a new home screen showing a sun-setting beneath the Destiny 2 title card. Players who made it through the login issues found a game that still works, still feels like Destiny, and is now locked in its final form.
Like the original Destiny, the game will remain online indefinitely, but Monument of Triumph is its final content update.
Whether Sony and Bungie see today’s numbers as a business case for Destiny 3 remains unclear. What is certain is that the community showed up in force, delivering player counts that surpassed the game built to replace it.
Source: Destiny 2’s final update – live coverage of the end of an era
