Destiny 2 Closes, Community at War with Marathon: D3 Petition Reaches 300k, More than Triple the Players of Marathon on Steam

The closure of Destiny 2 has transformed part of the community into a hostile front against Marathon, and tensions are rising quickly. On June 9, 2026, Bungie will cease active development for Destiny 2 after nearly nine years (including the original Destiny) of expansions, raids, and continuous updates. Thus, Destiny 2 will enter a state of "maintenance": it will still be playable, but there will be no further updates or new game modes.

What followed the announcement is an internal conflict within the fanbase itself, with long-time creators shedding all inhibitions, and Paul Tassi from Forbes, one of the most esteemed video game journalists, casually using the term "civil war" in his analysis.

Aztecross and the War Against the Marathon Community

Among the most vocal creators is Aztecross, a historic and extraordinary figure in the Destiny ecosystem, who has increasingly directed his latest releases in a polemic tone against Marathon. From a communication standpoint, his actions appear calculated: Destiny 2 is fading, the channel that made him famous is losing its reason for existence, and divisive content drives traffic even when the game no longer does. Tassi is more measured in his tone, but he did not hesitate to include "civil war" in the title.

The data speaks for itself. The Change.org petition requesting Sony to develop Destiny 3 has surpassed 280,000 signatures, a symbolically significant number: it's more than triple the peak number of simultaneous players that Marathon has reached on Steam, which is 88,000. After its launch in March 2026, the game lost over 83% of its active players on Steam in two months, dropping from 88,000 to around 15,000 daily concurrent players. Destiny 2, on the other hand, peaked at 350,000 simultaneous players, numbers that Marathon has never even come close to.

Marathon's Numbers

According to internal sources cited by Tassi on Forbes, Marathon has cost over $250 million in development, excluding maintenance and new content costs. In light of this investment, sales figures are around 1.2 million in the first weeks, with gross revenues estimated by Alinea Analytics at around $55 million. The game is already out of the Top 100 most played titles on Xbox, outside the Top 80 on Steam, and out of the Top 60 downloads on PS Store in the USA.

Marathon is inherently a hardcore extraction shooter that struggles to attract a casual audience, and this is a structural problem that no patch will solve. In all this, internal morale at Bungie is described as in "free fall" after rumors of possible new layoffs have further weakened the studio's position. The hypothesis that Bungie might shut down is no longer science fiction: with only one active project that isn’t meeting expectations and Destiny 2 winding down, the studio entirely depends on Marathon to justify its existence in the eyes of Sony. The petition for Destiny 3 will not change anything at the decision-making level, but it certifies that there is a demand for it.

That said, Bungie is also undergoing a monumental change regarding gaming habits, with many online titles released recently going through crises comparable to Marathon. With Fortnite continuing to lose interest and players, no other games seem to pick up the torch, as the attention of enthusiasts dangerously shifts (for the video game industry) towards other forms of entertainment.

To delve deeper into the Destiny universe, we refer you to our coverage of Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate on HWUpgrade.