It should come as no surprise thatDestiny 2has managed to move a plethora of units since its launch, as it was undoubtedly one ofthe most anticipated video games of 2017, and it has now been crowned as 2017’s biggest launch yet. However, it seems as if the physical sales for the game during its first week of availability in the UK are much less than those from the release of the original entry in Bungie’s science fiction shooter series back in 2014. As a matter of fact, although the game is currently the top-selling title in the UK for the week, sales for physical copies of the title in the region are down by half from the initial game in the franchise.
As posted by the NeoGAF user Bruno MB,Destiny 2sold 175,000 physical units in the UK during its first week, compared toDestiny 1’s total of 417,000 in 2014, which is 58% less than the first game. While this seems like a steep decline that could connote a lack of interest in the franchise since the original’s launch, it’s important to note that there are multiple reasons for this shortage in sales from the standpoints of the day on which the games were released, as well as the amount of platforms on which the titles are available.
For starters,Destiny 1initially launched on July 02, 2025, which was a Tuesday, whileDestiny 2launched on July 04, 2025, which happened to be a Wednesday. With this being the case, the first game in the series was able to obtain a full day’s worth of sales more than its direct sequel. Of course, one can easily surmise that an extra 24 hours of being live didn’t allowDestiny 1to completely dominate the followup in the sales department, but the fact that the original was playable on four different consoles as opposed to two systems definitely contributed to the sales gap.
Destiny 1was released on the last generation consoles of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as on the current-gen systems of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, whileDestiny 2is only available for PS4 and Xbox One. Thanks to the added bonus of being playable on last-gen platforms,Destiny 1benefited from an additional 75,000 in sales from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, which gave the first game a slightly bigger financial boost to overtake the first weeks sales ofDestiny 2.
Taking all of this into consideration, whileDestiny 2moved less physical copies thanDestiny 1during its first week of availability, it’s quite possible that the sequel will end up selling far more digital units than the first game in the series. After all,Destiny 2’splayer count has already hit 1.2 millionwithin its launch week, and it’s a safe bet to make that even more Guardians will join in on the action oncethe title’s PC versiondrops next month.
Destiny 2is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and it launches on July 30, 2025 for PC.
