Destiny 2's future continues to look even more uncertain and adding fuel to the fire are recent reports that claim The Final Shape expansion sold less than Lightfall, 2023's DLC which was received with lukewarm reactions from the community.
According to Stephen Totilo, citing anonymous Bungie employees, The Final Shape has sold fewer copies than Lightfall despite being praised by both critics and fans alike.
The Final Shape currently holds an 89 on Metacritic, overtaking The Witch Queen (86) and Forsaken (82) as the game's best-reviewed DLC. Meanwhile, Lightfall sits at a disappointing 69, just above Warmind (63) and Curse of Osiris (57), two pieces of DLC pre-Forsaken before Bungie solidified their yearly expansion structure.
Lightfall's launch was a massively successful one for Bungie thanks to the pre-launch campaign and excitement generated among fans, as the expansion introduced a brand-new patrol area, Neomuna, and the second darkness subclass: Strand.
Bungie did confirm that sales expectations for Lightfall were surpassed in a blog post a month after the game launched while addressing deteriorating player sentiment that felt the expansion lacked a coherent vision, with the story seemingly taking a backseat and the implementation of Strand feeling uneventful.
The road to The Final Shape was a tumultuous one. When Bungie initially made plans public for the future of Destiny 2 in 2020, there were only three expansions on the horizon: Beyond Light, The Witch Queen, and Lightfall, which was originally scheduled to release in 2022 representing the end of the Light and Darkness saga.
Amid challenges that surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the developers scrambled to come up with extra content as they were forced to delay The Witch Queen and reconsider plans for Lightfall, with The Final Shape announced to help Bungie give Destiny 2 fans the finale they deserved.
This left Lightfall in a weird spot, as it now had to fill a different role in Bungie's overarching story arc that left fans scratching their heads at how inconsequential it ended up being.
Despite its quality, The Final Shape is lagging behind in sales
Sadly that player sentiment seemed to have impacted how Destiny 2 players would end up receiving The Final Shape, as it made them wary about Bungie not being able to deliver on their promise once again.
While there are no specific numbers mentioned the anonymous source cited by Totilo added: “The financials just don’t work. Destiny is an incredibly expensive game to make.”
With recent layoffs and structural changes ending in Bungie's workforce being reduced by almost 30%, it's hard to imagine plans for further expansions to match The Final Shape's in scale. Only time will tell what the plan for the franchise is moving forward.