Quick answer: The base game is free and has been since October 2019, so there is nothing to buy before you try it. The last nine months have been extraordinary. Bungie announced on 21 May 2026 that active development was ending and cancelled every planned expansion. The final update landed on 9 June and pulled over 167,000 Steam players, the game's best figure in two years. Then on 21 September Bungie reversed six years of policy and committed to bringing back every vaulted campaign, destination and raid, free for everyone. Servers stay online indefinitely. This is the best moment in years to start.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Start here, because it saves you money and it is the single most misunderstood thing about this game: Destiny 2's base game is free to play. It has been free since October 2019 under the New Light banner, on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Epic. You do not need to buy anything to download it, install it and play for as long as you like.
Anything advertising a paid or cracked "full game download" for Destiny 2 is selling you something that does not exist. It is an always online game tied to a Bungie account. There is no offline copy to obtain, and files claiming otherwise are at best useless.
With that out of the way, the actual story here is one of the strangest live service reversals ever filed.
Nine months that killed and revived a game
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2 December 2025 | Renegades launches, a Star Wars themed expansion. Peaks at 71,278 on Steam, down 26% on the previous expansion |
| March 2026 | Steam average bottoms out around 7,300, the lowest month on record |
| 5 March 2026 | Bungie's new game Marathon launches, peaking at 88,337 on Steam |
| 21 May 2026 | Bungie announces active development is ending. All future expansions cancelled. Sony discloses a roughly $765 million impairment on Bungie |
| 9 June 2026 | Monument of Triumph, the final content update, ships free to all. Steam peaks above 167,000, the highest in about two years |
| July 2026 | Around 290 Bungie staff laid off, the third round since the Sony acquisition |
| August 2026 | Marathon's daily Steam peak falls to roughly 3,500, down more than 96% from launch |
| 21 September 2026 | Bungie reverses the content vault. Every vaulted campaign, destination and raid to be restored, free for all players |
Read that twice. A game was declared finished in May, posted its biggest player numbers in two years in June, and in September had six years of its most hated policy formally undone.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
What the content vault was, and why reversing it matters
In November 2020, with the Beyond Light expansion, Bungie introduced the Destiny Content Vault and removed large parts of the game. Not disabled. Removed. That included the Red War, the original 2017 launch campaign, plus the Curse of Osiris and Warmind expansions, and the destinations Io, Titan, Mercury and Mars. The Forsaken campaign followed in 2022, along with raids including Leviathan.
Players had paid for some of that. It was deleted anyway, and the practical effect was that Destiny 2's own origin story became unplayable for more than half the game's lifespan. For new players it was the single biggest barrier to understanding anything.
On 21 September 2026, in a post titled "The Next Chapter for Bungie", studio head Poria Torkan and head of product Josh Deane committed to undoing it. Bungie's own wording acknowledged that removing the content "had a lasting impact on player trust", and said the studio would "do the work to make it right". Deane put it more bluntly, saying he wished the studio could flip a switch, and describing the vaulted content as what was "rightfully yours".
| Type | Confirmed for restoration |
|---|---|
| Campaigns | Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Forsaken |
| Destinations | Io, Titan, Mercury, Mars |
| Raids | Leviathan and other removed raids |
| Access | Free to all players, not gated behind expansion ownership |
There is no release date for any of it. Bungie published no schedule, named no first piece of content and gave no timeframe, saying only that rebuilding will take time because the game's underlying systems changed after Beyond Light. Reporting also indicates the seasonal content, more than 25 seasons of it, is not part of the restoration plan. Treat the unvaulting as a confirmed direction rather than something you can play on a given date.
Is it dying or recovering? Both, depending on the month
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Destiny 2's player numbers in 2026 look like a heart monitor rather than a trend line.
| Month | Steam average | Context |
|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | around 7,300 | lowest monthly average on record |
| May 2026 | around 10,500 | the end is announced on the 21st |
| June 2026 | around 62,000 to 67,000 | peak above 167,000 on final update day |
| August 2026 | around 24,800 | the farewell crowd thins out |
| September 2026 | around 17,300 | unvaulting announced on the 21st |
| October 2026 | around 25,800 | climbing again on the back of the reversal |
Away from Steam, Bungie reported roughly 4.8 million active accounts as of 1 June 2026, against a peak of about 12 million monthly players in 2024. The all time Steam peak remains roughly 316,700.
Treat all of these figures as approximate. Trackers disagree substantially, with readings for the same period sometimes differing by 50% or more depending on methodology and the hour sampled. Steam also excludes PlayStation, Xbox and Epic, where a large share of the audience sits. The shape of the curve is reliable. The precise numbers are not.
What you actually get for nothing
The free New Light version includes the social spaces, patrol destinations, strikes, the Crucible competitive modes, Gambit, and a substantial amount of cooperative content. Since The Final Shape in 2024, the Shadowkeep and Beyond Light campaigns are also free, with only their endgame content sold separately.
The gunplay is the reason any of this endured. Nine years on, Destiny 2's shooting, movement and ability feel remain the benchmark the genre is measured against, and that has never seriously been in dispute even during the worst of the business news.
Paid expansions remain available, and since 9 June 2026 everything has been bundled into Destiny 2: The Collection, covering all expansions, content packs and dungeon keys in one purchase. Individual expansions also carry permanent markdowns, making the full catalogue cheaper than at any previous point.
What is genuinely wrong with it
Onboarding is still poor. With the Red War gone, new players are dropped in with a thin introductory quest and a user interface that assumes years of accumulated knowledge. The unvaulting should eventually fix this. It has not fixed it yet.
No new content is being made. Monument of Triumph was the last live service update. The expansions that were planned, reported as Shattered Cycle and The Alchemist, are cancelled. Restoring old content is not the same as producing new content, and Bungie has promised the former while only gesturing at the latter.
The user score is grim. Metacritic's PC user rating sits around 4.4, Generally Unfavorable, with 52% of ratings negative. That reflects a decade of monetisation rows, the vault and the ending rather than how the game plays.
The seasonal story is mostly gone forever. More than 25 seasons of narrative content were removed over the years and are reportedly not part of the restoration. Large parts of the plot simply cannot be experienced.
It remains always online. No offline mode, no solo-without-servers option. What you have is access, not a permanent copy, and Bungie's own framing is that the game stays playable "just as the original Destiny is today".
Buy, wait or skip
| You are | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Curious and have never played | Install it today, pay nothing | The base game is free. There is no reason to spend a penny before you know whether you like it |
| Wondering whether to buy expansions | Play free first, then consider The Collection | Everything is bundled and permanently marked down, so there is no urgency and no expiring offer |
| A lapsed player who left over the vault | Worth watching | Bungie has committed to restoring it all for free, but no date exists yet |
| Wanting a steady stream of new content | Skip for now | Active development ended in June 2026 and every planned expansion was cancelled |
| Worried the servers will close | Not an immediate concern | Bungie says servers stay online indefinitely, and the original Destiny is still up years after its support ended |
| Here for the shooting | Still the best in the genre | Nine years on, the gunplay remains the benchmark. That part never went wrong |
| Someone who needs an offline game | Skip | Always online, no offline mode, no exceptions |
Verdict: install it. It costs nothing, the gunplay is still the best in its genre after nine years, and the thing that most damaged the game is being formally undone. Go in knowing that no new content is being produced, that onboarding is rough until the Red War returns, and that the restoration has no published schedule. But a free game in which a studio has publicly admitted it was wrong and started giving deleted content back is a far better proposition than the one people were mourning in May. If you have ever been curious, this is the moment, and it will not cost you anything to find out.
Frequently asked questions
Is Destiny 2 free?
Yes. The base game has been free to play since October 2019 on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Epic. Since 2024 the Shadowkeep and Beyond Light campaigns are free as well. Only the later expansions and some endgame content are paid.
Is Destiny 2 shutting down?
No. Active development ended with the Monument of Triumph update on 9 June 2026, but Bungie has confirmed servers stay online indefinitely and the game remains fully playable. Bungie compared it to the original Destiny, which is still online years after its support ended.
Is Bungie really bringing back the deleted content?
Yes, that is the commitment made on 21 September 2026. Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind and Forsaken, plus Io, Titan, Mercury, Mars and raids including Leviathan, all free to every player. No release date has been given for any of it.
Will the seasons come back too?
Reportedly not. Coverage of the announcement indicates the restoration covers campaigns, destinations and raids, and that more than 25 seasons of content are not part of the plan.
How many people still play?
Steam averages have swung between roughly 7,300 in March 2026 and about 62,000 in June, sitting near 25,800 in October. Bungie reported around 4.8 million active accounts in June 2026. Trackers disagree widely, so treat all figures as approximate.
Why did Bungie stop development?
Sony, which bought Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, disclosed a roughly $765 million impairment on the studio, attributed in part to the underperformance of Marathon. Around 290 staff were laid off in July 2026.
What is the best way to start?
Download the free version, work through the introductory quest and the free Shadowkeep and Beyond Light campaigns, and only buy anything once you know the shooting and the loop suit you.
Can I play it offline?
No. Destiny 2 is always online and requires a constant connection and a Bungie account. There is no offline or single player mode.
A note on downloads
Because the base game costs nothing, any site offering a Destiny 2 "full game download", a cracked build, a password protected archive or a link behind an ad gate is not saving you money. There is nothing to save. The game is always online and account bound, so a downloaded copy cannot connect to anything. Install it from Steam, the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store or the Microsoft Store.
Where to go next
- For the other big looter shooter that survived its near death, read our The Division 2 review.
- For a game that was repaired and still lost its audience, see our Battlefield 2042 review.
- Another co-op shooter outliving its own sequel: our PAYDAY 2 review.
- On games whose servers were switched off instead, see the live service graveyard.
- For a multiplayer game quietly running out of players, read our Dragon Ball The Breakers review.
- If you want a shooter campaign with an ending instead, try Terminator Resistance.
- And on why publishers keep doing this, read why AAA games are not fun anymore.
- Browse the Shooter, FPS, Multiplayer and RPG hubs.
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