Google Stadia Desperately Needs Cross-Play As Destiny 2 Player Numbers Plummet
Destiny 2 is a sci-fi multiplayer shooter developed by Bungie in which players assume the role of a Guardian, who are the protectors of Earth’s last safe city as they wield a power called Light to safeguard what remains of humanity from numerous alien races.
One of the most important aspects of Destiny 2 is that it’s a shared experience in which players embark on a mission to save our galaxy together. Which is fine when your platform of choice has the player numbers required to make Destiny feel like a bustling ecosystem, filled with gamers all sharing the same goal of interplanetary adventure.
Over the last few months player numbers have remained steady on PC, PS4 and Xbox One platforms, but during the same period the number of people playing on Google Stadia have atrophied to less than a quarter what they were when the platform launched.
To make matters worse, the player base on Stadia is not currently allowed to experience crossplay with any other platforms, including PC. Which is confusing when you consider that Google promoted Stadia as a cloud-gaming system where you essentially rent a high-powered PC in order to stream your favourite games over the internet. This is resulting in Stadia owners struggling to play games competitively online as they simply can’t find people to play with.
Destiny is is one of the flagship titles on Stadia with the largest playerbase on the platform. On the day of the platform’s launch, Destiny 2’s Stadia population reached 19,400. Typically we would see those numbers rise in the months post-launch as more gamers adopt the platform, but instead the numbers have dwindled to a daily average 4,400 this month.
Total Destiny 2 player numbers across all platforms on a single day this March:
- PlayStation 4 – 460,000
- Windows PC – 437,000
- Xbox One – 328,000
- Google Stadia – 4,460
This shows that the other platforms have as much as one hundred times more gamers playing Destiny 2 than Stadia does. This is not a problem exclusive to Destiny 2 on Stadia though, with gamers reporting on Reddit that even on other popular free-to-play titles such as Samurai Showdown, they are unable to get into online matches at all.
Stadia has a core fan base of gamers on Reddit who absolutely love the platform and are happy to ditch the cycle of repeatedly purchasing consoles or upgrading their bulky PCs in favour of a service that upgrades itself for them. However, even amongst those who shelled out $129.99 for the Founders Edition of Stadia, that favourable experience is elusive as users complain about the lack of consistent stream quality. The numbers speak for themselves as the player bases for even the most popular titles on Stadia continue to plummet.
Google’s lack of communication about their future plans for the platform are compounding the matter further as Stadia owners are frustrated and feeling left out in the cold. If the numbers continue to drop, even the most popular games will feel like ghost towns and that will be the worst situation for this fledgeling gaming platform.
