gm completion rate on steam is 7.3% so not conquer just one gm clear on steam
One gm completion on xbox is 4.08%
Last wish on steam 7.1%
Xbox last wish clears 3.73%
Now some of those clear percentages are cheaters and paid carrys etc
Banned/cheating players still count to clear percentages even though accounts are removed clear percentages are not ,same goes for trials flawless
I actually play endgame content but the clears for endgame are so low and it got me wondering if this could be part to why d2 has such low player count because let's face it, the only stuff worth doing in the game is the endgame content since the weapons are superior and so is the armor , another good thing is weapons are also less likely to be nerfed or if they are it takes months because it's seen as not an issue since only the top % have access to it (immortal smg was a good example of this same for igneous hammer)
Reason I made this post is because the average player only has patrols, campaign, seasons which recently has locked off some average players due to difficulty like unable to progress due to exotic mission needing doing , low level strikes , and pvp crucible /gambit
Above average players have patrols ,campaign ,exotic missions ,seasons ,seasonal master events ,dungeons ,dungeons on master , strikes all the way up to gm level so like 4 or 5 types of difficulty, pvp crucible /gambit / trials and lastly raids on difficulty from normal to master
So forgive me if I missed anything out but it seems like there is more stuff to do in the game for above average players than there is for average players
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There are many, MANY reasons for the low playercount, but the difficulty aspect certainly hurts the new player experience. Even the campaigns (which should be the cornerstone of the NPE) took a sharp upward turn in difficulty at Lightfall and then never dropped back down again. Strikes used to be the bread and butter for new players, but they've all been 'retuned' for people more used to the mechanics of the game and less interested in the lore and story behind each one. PvP is now even more of the elitist cesspool than it always has been, tempered only by the rampant cheating by those looking to level the playing field by any means. As a result, there's very little new blood coming into the game, but that isn't the only issue. It's very obvious that at some point, Bungie decided that they would 'preach to the converted' and forget about bringing new players in but then simultaneously didn't give any consideration to the existing playerbase (unless those players already had established pre-made fireteams or access to an audience of willing flunkies ready to run endgame content at a moment's notice or subscribe to watch them farming gear from a rigged RNG system for 8-10 hours a day). Unsurprisingly, the current player average is around 5% of what it was at peak, which might (just might) have something to do with Bungie only catering to 5% of it's playerbase...