Destiny 2 lost a lot of players over two months, this is how they avoided losing more

From September 2022 to November 2022, Destiny 2 experienced a drop in its weekly active user count to levels not seen since 2018, alarming the developers at Bungie. According to Alan Blaine, lead technical designer, this decline occurred without a clear cause, leading Bungie’s management to worry about the sales of the annual expansion, which were far below expectations.

An agile change based on retaining, not seeking new players

In light of this situation, an agile team known as the player retention team was formed, dedicated to improving player experience and retention within the game. This strategic approach included the implementation of significant changes in a short period of time, prioritizing constant communication with the community through weekly emails that shared updates on development and highlighted changes.

As a result of these efforts, 17 unique changes were implemented in the six weeks leading up to the launch of the Lightfall expansion, receiving a mostly positive response from the community. However, although the PRT managed to boost the morale of players and developers, the Lightfall expansion was harshly criticized, even though many of its issues were not related to the work of the retention team.

Despite a critical error that caused a 24-hour game outage and the use of one of the few database rollbacks in the history of Destiny 2, the efforts of the PRT are considered a success and a playbook has been developed for future initiatives. This process has raised questions about whether a permanent retention team would be a long-term solution, as each situation in game development requires a fresh and flexible approach.

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