Destiny: Rising launched globally on August 28, 2025 (excluding in mainland China). This free-to-play title is the first mobile entry in Bungie’s Destiny franchise, developed and published by China’s NetEase Games under license from Bungie. For Bungie, it’s a gateway to mobile and Chinese audiences. For NetEase, it’s a high-stakes bet: a mobile-first AAA shooter based on one of gaming’s most revered sci-fi IPs. (We’ve written about the Chinese market and Chinese developers, whether AAA or mobile, numerous times.)

Destiny: Rising isn’t a mobile port; it’s a full-scale, self-contained title with its own campaign, multiple PvE and PvP queues, and social hubs. The gunplay feels unmistakably Destiny, albeit streamlined for touch controls. But the system design, UI, and progression loops borrow heavily from Genshin Impact, from the button layout to the gacha design and even visual style of the user interface.

Daily net revenue — *Source: Sensor Tower*

So far, though, the launch has been modest by NetEase standards. According to Sensor Tower, within the first 20 days of launching, the game generated 2 million downloads and made $9 million in net IAP revenue. By comparison, Diablo Immortal (launched in June 2022) racked up over 13 million downloads and generated $39 million in revenue in a similar post-launch window. Given that Destiny: Rising’s scope and production values rival full-scale AAA games and even MMOs, these results must be a disappointment for NetEase. Development alone likely cost well over $100 million.

Yet, where the business performance looks underwhelming, player sentiment has been unexpectedly positive. Unlike Diablo Immortal (also by NetEase with a license/co-dev deal with Blizzard), which faced backlash upon launch three years ago, Destiny: Rising has been met with surprising warmth. Part of that can be attributed to timing, as longtime players are in the middle of a Destiny 2 lull. But it’s also because the game delivers on several fronts that fans have wanted for years. In many ways, Destiny: Rising delivers the MMO experience that many Destiny fans have long imagined, but in a mobile gacha wrapper.

First, it offers low-friction novelty. Activities are short, matchmaking is seamless, and the core loop runs faster, so players can always make progress. Crucially, that progress is tied to new content: story missions, new activities, and even full raids. Where Destiny 2 leans heavily on recycled content, Rising feels fresh.

Second, it has breadth. Beyond the campaign, NetEase has built “MMO-ish” extras that players have asked for, for years: Sparrow (hoverbike) racing, a fishing minigame, a card game, and clan housing.

Finally, Destiny: Rising includes quality-of-life touches that Destiny 2 still lacks. End-of-activity MVP scoreboards, per-encounter raid matchmaking, in-game weapon roll reviews, and animated emblems may sound small, but together they make the experience feel more modern and respectful of players’ time.

A Long Time Coming: NetEase x Bungie

This release is the culmination of a long courtship. Back in 2018, NetEase invested over $100 million into Bungie, earning a minority stake and a board seat. While the PR at the time focused on “new worlds beyond Destiny,” licensing discussions were likely already underway. The development of Rising reportedly began in 2019 or 2020, shortly before Genshin Impact reshaped mobile design expectations in late 2020. Bungie’s 10-year publishing deal with Activision also came to an end in 2019.

In 2022, Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion. The NetEase partnership continued despite the ownership change. By then, the development of a Destiny mobile game had become one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry.

For Bungie, the logic is simple: Mobile is half the global game market, and Bungie lacked the expertise to enter it alone. Licensing Destiny to NetEase, one of the few studios with the talent and infrastructure to execute at this level, was a low-risk way to expand reach.

NetEase is the one with real skin in the game. It likely footed most of the bill and now owns the live-service responsibility. Yet NetEase has shown it can deliver, with its deep experience in large-scale shooters (Knives Out,Marvel Rivals) and a successful track record of translating AAA franchises to mobile (Diablo Immortal).

Rising’s Biggest Launch Is Still Ahead

Not all IP partnerships succeed. Call of Duty: Mobile is an unarguable top-tier success, and even Diablo Immortal is on track to make over $1 billion in lifetime revenues. But Apex Legends Mobile (Lightspeed) flopped, Avatar: Reckoning(Archosaur) was canceled during development, and many others still sit in development hell. Shooters in particular — IP or no IP — face fierce competition, with more titles still on the way.

Naavik Analysis — *Source: Naavik analysis, Sensor Tower*

Destiny: Risingis not immune to these risks. So, why might this game be different?

Strong early traction. The game is exceptionally well crafted. Community and critical reception has been surprisingly positive, even from longtime Destiny fans.

Massive investment. NetEase poured years and likely more than $100 million in this; the sunk cost alone makes abandonment unlikely.

China still ahead. Destiny: Rising has yet to be released in China, the world’s largest mobile market. The inclusion of distinctly Chinese themes and characters points to a strong focus on the domestic audience.

That said, the bar for success here is brutally high. Games operating at this scope need massive, ongoing content pipelines and live-ops muscle. These projects either hit $100M-plus in annual revenue or quietly vanish; there’s no middle ground. Destiny: Rising has the polish, but the genre and platform combo — sci-fi looter shooter on mobile — is still unproven at that level. And if the size of the business is not sustainable in the long term, it might join the likes of Apex Legendsand Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile in the graveyard of big live-service titles.

Canceled large-scale mobile shooters — *Source: Naavik analysis, Sensor Tower*

Destiny: Rising is a fascinating experiment: part Bungie DNA, part NetEase execution, and part MiHoYo-inspired systems design. For NetEase, the game is a strategic bet at a time when overseas growth is slowing, and many high-profile mobile projects have been shelved — the company has pulled back from the West, divesting assets, laying off U.S. teams, and shutting down studios.

So far, the early results outside China are modest. Although there's a real chance Rising could carve out a sustainable niche, the real test will be the upcoming China release, due in October. Destiny: Rising, developed entirely in China, looks to be first and foremost a domestic play. The global release could well be more of a bonus than the main event.

Apple’s store listing for the China-specific build shows an estimated release date of October 29. NetEase hasn’t commented on an Android release date, but Chinese Android titles typically release across multiple stores in the same window as iOS. The majority of the 10 million pre-registrations NetEase has confirmed likely come from China; the game is already out internationally, yet has only gathered 2 million downloads after 20 days. China might well become the most important market for Rising. For comparison, in H2 2022, shortly after its launch, 64% of Diablo Immortal’s iOS revenue came from China.

Mobile adaptations of AAA IP are notoriously difficult to pull off. Many fail outright, while rare successes show what’s possible when elite Chinese game teams (namely select Tencent and NetEase studios) are behind them. Destiny: Rising has polish and strong early sentiment, but it’s launching into a shooter market that’s more crowded than ever before. Whether it joins the short list of genuine mobile IP wins or ends up as another expensive experiment will hinge less on its performance in the West and more on its upcoming China launch.

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