Destiny 3: The Petition Already Has More Signatures Than Marathon Has Players

The petition titled « Petition Sony to Develop Destiny 3 » was launched on May 22, 2026 on Change.org by a Guardian named Harley Casto. Its growth has been explosive. 40,000 signatures in 24 hours, 122,000 after 48 hours, and 174,502 signatures at the time of writing, with a curve that shows no sign of slowing.

The petition text captures the community’s frustration. Harley Casto writes that « our passion for the Destiny franchise drives us to reach out to Sony » and calls on fans to « express our collective voice ». The contrast is painful for Bungie. A free online form launched by a single fan is rallying more people than the multi-hundred-million-dollar triple-A live-service game the studio is supposed to be carrying.

The timing of the petition is no accident. On June 9, 2026, Destiny 2 will receive its final content update, named Monument of Triumph. After that date, the servers will stay online but no new content will be added. For a franchise launched in 2014 with the original Destiny, it marks the end of a 12-year era.

The unease goes beyond players. According to Forbes and journalist Paul Tassi, most Bungie employees only learned that Destiny 2 was ending its updates when the public announcement was made. Don McGowan, former Chief Legal Officer at the studio, confirmed the gut punch in the press by stating that Bungie has become « just a publishing house » since the Sony acquisition.

In response, the community is organizing a massive in-game mobilization for June 9. Guardians are being called to log back in en masse for the launch of Monument of Triumph, to prove to Sony that a huge active audience still exists around the franchise.

Marathon, the extraction shooter launched by Bungie on March 5, 2026, was meant to embody the studio’s live-service future. The reality is harsh. The game peaked at 88,337 concurrent players on Steam at launch according to SteamDB, and now sits at around 4,000 concurrent players according to Tracker.gg, less than 5% of its peak.

Cross-platform estimates put the total launch-week peak between 130,000 and 150,000 players across all platforms, according to Paul Tassi and his sources at Bungie, based on an estimated 2:1 split between Steam and consoles. The 174,502 signatures even surpass the upper end of that estimate. An online form is mobilizing more people than the global launch of the game meant to save the studio.

Worse, Destiny players are now flooding Marathon with negative reviews on Steam, blaming the shooter for killing their franchise. Critics point to thin content, a steep learning curve, and controversial battle pass design choices.

On the business side, Sony‘s caution makes sense. The group acquired Bungie in 2022 for $3.6 billion, roughly €3.3 billion. The deal has since triggered an impairment of around $760 million, roughly €705 million, tied to the studio’s cumulative underperformance. Neither Destiny 2 nor Marathon delivered the numbers expected.

According to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, Destiny 3 is not in development and was never greenlit internally. Paul Tassi confirms separately that a Destiny 3 pitch has already been rejected by Sony in the past, due to funding constraints. Massive layoffs are also expected at Bungie after June 9.

Greenlighting a new Destiny would mean committing hundreds of millions of dollars again to a high-risk triple-A live-service in a market that Marathon has just illustrated as merciless. Three scenarios are circulating. A narrative-driven Destiny 3 less dependent on the seasonal model, a spin-off handed to another PlayStation studio, or a prolonged dormancy of the franchise while Bungie tries to salvage Marathon.

One thing is certain. On June 9, Sony will get a clear answer from the Destiny community. If the in-game mobilization matches the petition’s momentum, the publisher’s silence will become untenable.