Destiny 2’s 2025 Solstice Event Shows Why Returning Player Numbers Are Down

Destiny 2 has had a reputation for some time as being a dead game despite consistent content drops and story updates, and this year’s Solstice event proves that this moniker isn’t entirely unearned. Annual events are supposed to be a recurring treat, something for players to look forward to between DLCs to keep their attention, but this year’s Solstice and the changes made to its format almost completely miss the mark. Solstice isn’t the only victim of Bungie’s changes; Guardian Games, Festival of the Lost, and more events have been gutted in recent years, leaving Guardians bored and frustrated.

Destiny 2’s Solstice Has Been Reduced to Almost Nothing

In previous years, Solstice has featured the Bonfire Bash, an event that allowed players to earn heaps of loot, stoking a giant bonfire that awarded more gear the more it burned. Now, Bungie has removed the Bonfire Bash activity in favor of…nothing? There are still opportunities to earn event-specific loot, but no specific activity by which to do so. Instead, the event has been replaced entirely with modifiers that enhance a Guardian’s gameplay, which effectively amount to nothing.

To earn event currency and rewards, Guardians must complete Playlist, Solo, or Crucible ops with Solstice modifiers active. These modifiers are pretty fun, mostly focused around boosting the power of Solar builds, but add nothing to the experience other than some explosions and bright lights. While it’s nice for everything on your screen to ignite in a fiery demise, it doesn’t replace a unique activity. Without an actual event activity to base the event around, Solstice has lost some of its shine, leaving the weapons the only actual reason to play the game.

With the time sink required to gear up to the level cap already a major complaint among casual players, it’s disheartening to see how fully Bungie is leaning into the grind-as-gameplay model with Solstice this year. Those who work during the week will need to stack their weekends with as much Destiny as possible to keep up with players who are more active.

Players Can’t Get Excited for Yearly Events

While the draw of powerful loot is enough to get some Guardians online, there are many who care more about the experience of playing the game than they do the rewards at the end. The rewards are nice, but if the game feels like a chore to play, they’re simply not worth the time and effort they take to earn. By eliminating what makes annual events unique, Bungie discourages many players from even bothering to log on and play.

Another unfortunate truth regarding annual Destiny 2 events is that many players are disillusioned by them, even the ones with unique activities. The initial sparkle has worn off—many of 2024’s events felt stale and uninspired regardless of the activity they were paired with—and a decline in returning player rates proves that Bungie has to do something new to keep their playerbase interested between DLCs. It seems, however, that Bungie is instead choosing to pour everything they have into smaller, more consistent DLC drops rather than funneling resources into what’s already in the game, leaving annual events behind.

Bungie Prioritizes DLC Drops at the Cost of the Day-to-Day Experience

With one Major Update—Arsenal—out of the way and one more coming, plus the Behemoth expansion coming in the winter, it’s clear that Bungie is pouring a lot into its major content updates, but this leaves events like Solstice, Festival of the Lost, and the Dawning by the wayside. Edge of Fate wasn’t a huge campaign, around a dozen hours, and now players have to amuse themselves grinding and exploring Kepler until more updates come.

Annual events used to be something to look forward to, new activities that changed up the typical gameplay loop by offering a unique goal. With the removal of the Bonfire Bash, Guardians bid farewell to the last remaining event activity. Now, the time between expansions will be filled with the same gameplay as any other season, leaving annual events like the Solstice feeling rote, disengaging, and overdone. Whether Bungie will listen to player feedback regarding the feel and enjoyability of events like Solstice is unclear, but players can only hope that Bungie will add new ways to keep the day-to-day gaming experience feeling fun.

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