Destiny is a divisive game, putting it mildly. On one side of the coin, there are those who complained the game overhyped and underdelivered; on the other, there are those who have sunk hundres – thousands – of hours into it to try and obtain Gjallarhorn. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit, there’s no denying a lot of people play(ed) Destiny. Yet, according to PlayStation’s Trophy system, around 5.8% of those who picked up the controller never made it past the first mission.
The Trophy in question is ‘Ship Rite’, earned unavoidably upon completing the first mission. According to PlayStation’s Trophy statistics, 5.8% of PlayStation players who started playing Destiny have not earned this Trophy.
To put it into perspective, the first mission was often classed as one of the most engaging in the game, given that its level design varies from what the rest of the game has to offer (a design that returned with the House of Wolves Expansion). The story missions are also considered fairly short.
What follows is a breakdown of numbers that are in no way concrete; rather they are to provide context as to just how many people started playing Destiny and stopped before they finished the first mission.
Bungie has never released solid numbers for Destiny‘s playerbase, though Activision announced that Destiny had approximately 16 million registered users by January 2015. If we say, for argument’s sake, that roughly half the population play on the PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4, which is probably being generous towards the Xbox One and Xbox 360, considering Sony’s marketing rights, that’s about 8 million users.
If 5.8% of PlayStation players haven’t completed the first mission, that makes the number (going by 8 million users) just short of 500,000.
Given that more people will have picked up Destiny since January – after the expansions’ releases – and will have added to the overall number of registered users, as well as assuming that the PlayStation consoles actually account for more than half of the total number of users, it’s very possible that at the very least 1 to 2 hundred thousand people stopped playing Destiny before the end of the very first mission.
This is, of course, speculation based on a percentage to a number we don’t even have, but it’s more to provide some context to the Trophy statistic, rather than an exact number. As found by a curious Redditor, here are some other interesting statistics based on PlayStation’s Trophy statistics:
- 44.7% of players haven’t decrypted 25 Engrams
- 66.8% of players haven’t equipped an Exotic item
- 37.3% of players haven’t completed a Strike
- 79.4% of players haven’t fully upgraded a Legendary item
- 36.4% of players haven’t ‘observed’ another Guardian
- 77.3% of players haven’t completed a Raid
As is stated in the Reddit post, these numbers likely don’t account for game sharing or the like either, so don’t take them as gospel – take them away as a guide of just how many Destiny players who started the game continued to the end.
Considering just how many Destiny players dislike the lack of matchmaking for Raids, the last statistic is – unfortunately – not all that surprising. The Raids themselves are incredibly fun and well-designed, but many players have issues of time and friends when it comes to organizing a 6-man Fireteam.
As The Taken King draws nearer, it’s possible these figures may start to rise, especially with the DLC-inclusive bundle.