Though Destiny 2 was dethroned as the best-selling game of 2017 by fellow Activision release Call of Duty: WWII, it still set records when it rolled out to PCs a month after its console launch. The publisher noted in its Q4 of fiscal year 2017 earnings report today that Destiny 2 sold the most copies of a PC game ever in Activision’s history.
In addition to setting a record as Activision’s biggest PC launch, Destiny 2 was the second highest grossing game on consoles in North America in 2017. Along with Call of Duty: WWII, it also contributed significantly to Activision’s monthly active users, which totaled 55 million for the quarter.
Destiny 2 is the followup to the 2014 Destiny, which received mixed reviews despite strong sales. The sequel has received some complaints from hardcore players, and in response developer Bungie opened a dialogue with fans about what kind of changes would be coming up.
Activision acknowledged in a call today that it has work to do on the game, and Bungie game director Christopher Barrett laid out a roadmap in a post on the Destiny website in January. The updates the Bungie team has planned will be rolled out to all players.
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“One of the things we wanted to do with Destiny 2 was make it a bit of a less of a grind based on feedback we heard, and we wanted to provide players with more direct paths to getting the game’s best rewards,” said Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg in a Q&A session during today’s earnings call. “And that actually allowed our core players to consume the content faster than we anticipated, and that led to an increase in players calling for more challenges and better rewards in the ongoing game. Now, this is a live game and responding to player feedback is a part of the process in this game and any live game, and we feel like we have the right plan in place to address the concerns.”
Since its launch, Destiny 2 has already gotten new content in the Curse of Osiris expansion on December 5 and it ran a seasonal event over the holidays that drew fan criticism about the way it handled loot boxes. The game has two more expansions planned, which will roll out in May and at the end of the year.
