In 2014, Destiny launched with the full weight of preorder numbers that had the entire industry looking on in envy. While its reviews may not have lived up to expectations, its popularity did. Bungie's new IP showed no signs of slowing down, even a year after launch.
With the impending release of Destiny 2, preorder performance has always been a question of "how good are Destiny 2's preorders going to be." Early after preorders opened, GameStop's CEO claimed that they were some of the highest in gaming history. And in an investor's call yesterday, Activision CEO said in no uncertain terms: Destiny 2's preorders exceed those of the original.
This is excellent news for the franchise. While the game's certainly grown in popularity, there was a huge player drop-off immediately after vanilla launch. Previously, there was no way of knowing whether either change exceeded the other. Well, now we know.
We're heading into this fall with even more people sold on Bungie's universe than before. It was one thing when the game existed as an abstract, marketed vision, but through their sheer tenacity and force of vision, the studio has developed a pitch that's compelling in Destiny 2.