r/DestinyTheGame 1d ago

Question Does anyone know how much of the population is split between free2play guardians and people who buy expansions/seasons?

This has been bothering me since forever, because in all of the discussions and how split the community can be I'm wondering what is the actual distribution of people. This is even more interesting considering how often Bungie likes to highlight "free" content (i.e. Ash and Iron).

It would be great to also see when someone is sharing their opinions if they are a f2p player or someone who spends on dlc. Quite curious how many f2p players buy mtx too.

It looks like there is no public info available, and sadly one can't launch a poll here on D2 subreddit.

8 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

26

u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun 1d ago

I’m still amazed anyone plays this game f2p. I’ve never considered the base game as anything more than a demo.

7

u/makoblade 23h ago

That's because originally that's all it was.

Nothing about the game is designed for the people who don't pay for expansions.

3

u/headgehog55 18h ago

I would have agreed with you pre EoF. But right now the only thing you don't get is a few raids, dungeons and story. All of the portal is free to play and since that currently makes up 90%+ of what Destiny currently is why not go free to play.

1

u/MechaGodzilla101 2h ago

Wait Encore and stuff in the portal are F2P? neat.

12

u/Shellnanigans 1d ago

Since D1 This is the first DLC I didn't buy, I waited and looks at everything after it launched EOF gave us like 5 exotics total...compared to the like 20 exotics and 40+ weapons with the taken king, this wasnt worth my money

I am a weapons focused player, every paid armament didn't vibe with me so I skipped it (looked up the weapon rolls day 1 on light.gg)

The free content was enough for me, I just watched the DLC story on YT and saved my money

I hope renegades will be cool? I might play that

9

u/confon68 1d ago

Same here. Got my fill without buying. Portal basically makes f2p on the same content

2

u/whereismymind86 1d ago

Yep, one armor piece per class plus 1 weapon from the pass, one from the campaign and one from the raid not much else

11

u/Skellums Kick up the 4d3d3d3 1d ago edited 1d ago

The only thing you might be able to gather would be a rough estimation based on Charlemagne's data to see how many people completed the campaign* or at least played past the first mission of the latest campaign (which should indicate a paid player).

The population of r/DestinyTheGame is more representative of the "hardcore" population so the majority here would likely be paid and not F2P (yes, there are those that post here who are not up to date - but in general, if you're posting here you most likely have a continued investment in the game).

Edit: added "completed the campaign" as my fingers got ahead of my brain

2

u/SCPF2112 1d ago

Isn't the first mission F2P?

4

u/Skellums Kick up the 4d3d3d3 1d ago

Yeah, that's why I suggested looking for anyone playing past the first mission.

Edit.. I had meant in my original comment to look for people who had completed the campaign and/or people who have played the story past the first mission. Fingers and brain not in sync.

1

u/SCPF2112 1d ago

exactly, past the first mission would make sense

5

u/AlldeesKnots 1d ago

Destiny tracker shows 300,000 players

https://destinytracker.com/

Trials report averages around 100,000 players on a weekend and trials is a paid activity.

https://trials.report/weeks

So at least a third of the game population paid for the expansion. Then again PvP is something only 20-30% of players engage with.

It's also hard to tell who is 100% f2p, and who simply didn't buy the expansion waiting for a sale (but owns previous expansions).

I think only Bungie will know exact numbers.

2

u/Dangerous-Employer52 1d ago

Very often Destiny 2 still slips in and out of the most downloaded free to play game on PS4. Even this Sunday it made the top again for a bit.

Yeah it's PS4 but there are 30+ million owners of the system out there.

2

u/Obi-Wan-Nikobiii 22h ago

I used to pay but now I'm in the free2delete gang

1

u/whereismymind86 1d ago

Hard to say, but at lulls between seasons the population sits pretty reliably at 16-24k players, so I’d imagine that’s the baseline for hardcore paid players. Keep in mind too that old expansions pretty much all end up on ps+ so there are probably a lot of free players that have some paid content via that but have never bought anything directly

1

u/sandwhich_sensei 21h ago

Given that there's basically nothing to do as a f2p player I'd wager most are paying customers