Destiny 2's first day on Steam attracts nearly quarter of a million concurrent players
Unsurprisingly, Destiny 2's debut on Steam has been a big success.
Nearly 24 hours ago, Destiny 2 completed its migration from Battlenet to Steam. Both the Shadowkeep expansion, as well as the free-to-play New Light launched simultaneously on Valve's platform.
Steam players love free-to-play games, but it seems they also like Bungie's loot shooter. Shortly after launch, the game peaked at 219,997 concurrent players on Steam, allowing it to comfortably sit at number four, below Dota 2, CS:GO and PUBG - the store's top three mainstays. The figure is visible on Steam's stats page, though third-party trackers have yet to catch up.
Excluding the PUBG anomaly, Destiny 2 is effectively the most-played non-Valve game right now on Steam, well ahead of even its closest rival. Over 180,000 are currently in-game at the time of writing, and the numbers could get another push over the weekend.
Nearly a quarter of a million concurrent players on a single platform isn't incredibly surprising, considering the original Destiny 2 launch broke 1.2 million on all three platforms.
Destiny 2 is now also 2019's the most successful new release on Steam, in terms of player numbers. Having a free-to-play version is obviously a major factor, and Bungie's work to enable cross-saves undoubtedly also helped.
If you're completely new to Destiny, follow our Shadowkeep guide for a quick tip on how to immediately start the Shadowkeep campaign. If you're a veteran player, some of the new concepts the expansion introduces, such as Armor 2.0 and Seasonal Artifacts, could use a primer, which you can find at these links.