Introduction
Destiny: Rising is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online video game developed and published by NetEase, with licensing from Bungie. A live service mobile game in the Destiny: rising series, it was released worldwide (with some exceptions) on August 28, 2025, for Android and iOS devices. The game is set in an alternate timeline, taking place many years prior to the events of the original Destiny. Players collect and choose from a selection of characters with distinct abilities, aiming to restore human civilization as it emerges from a second dark age.
Gameplay
Destiny: Rising is a mobile role-playing game[1][2] that places players in a “shared world”[3] with single-player, PVE multiplayer, and PVP multiplayer modes available, plus multiplayer modes which are a mix of both.[4] In addition to friends and matchmade players, it also offers the option to play with bots when insufficient other players are available.[4][5] Unlike its first-person shooter predecessors, Rising can also be played as a third-person shooter.[6][7] The game supports touchscreen,[8] game controller,[8] and mouse and keyboard control schemes,[9] with developer NetEase offering official emulator support, via their own MuMuPlayer application, for those who wish to play on Windows or macOS devices.[10][11]
Rather than controlling a character of a specific class, as in mainline Destiny games, players choose from a roster of characters known as Lightbearers who each manifest one of the game’s three core elements called Solar, Arc, and Void,
Each character has unique abilities and stories. The game included 10 playable characters at launch, with two more added in its first official season. Characters vary in the weapon types which can be equipped in their two weapon slots: Primary, which have infinite ammunition, and Power, which have finite ammunition. Players have a shared inventory, allowing weapons to be shared between all characters available to them. Additionally, characters each possess a Relic, which determines their abilities.
Rising features some gameplay elements not present within the concurrent main title Destiny 2, such as racing for in-game ‘Sparrow’ vehicles, a player housing system, and the ability to dual-wield weapons. It also includes mini-games, such as fishing, a collectible card game named Shadowshaper Duels, and a Flappy Bird-style side-scrolling game. Rising also offers a roguelike game mode called Singularity, where players fight waves of enemies using randomized benefits. Players can create clans, known as Packs, to cooperate with other players, build a shared space, and search for shared resources.
a Flappy Bird-style side-scrolling game. Rising also includes a roguelike game mode called Singularity where players fight waves of enemies using randomized benefits. Players also have the ability to create clans, here known as Packs, to cooperate with other players to build a shared space and search for shared resources.
Premise
Bungie, the developers of the main Destiny games, described Rising as a “brand-new adventure set in an alternate Destiny timeline”. It takes place many years prior to the original Destiny, before the existence of the Tower and Guardians; however, due to its separate timeline, it does not affect the story of the mainline games and contains aspects which contradict their canon.
Following a golden age caused by the arrival of an entity known as “The Traveller” and the subsequent “Collapse” caused by alien invaders, humanity is recovering from a second dark age and entering the early “City Age.” Creatures born from the damaged Traveller, known as Ghosts, resurrect those humans capable of wielding its “Light” against their enemies, creating entities known as “Lightbearers.”
During the game’s announcement, Bungie described the game’s setting as follows:
“With the help of legendary Iron Lords, humanity has broken free the shackles of tyranny and began to rally together against the alien forces intent on its extinction. Amidst the chaos of this early age for The City, a new generation of Lightbearers, resurrected by mysterious entities known as Ghosts, set out to restore humanity’s prominence and secure its future.”
Development
In June 2018, it was announced that Bungie, the developers responsible for Destiny and Destiny 2, had received over US$100,000,000 as part of an investment from the Chinese company NetEase, granting them a minority stake in Bungie and a seat on its board of directors. Bungie chief executive officer Pete Parsons stated that the partnership was intended to help them become a global game and entertainment company, to build games that inspire people from around the world.
Before that point, Bungie games had never been released in mainland China, and NetEase were responsible for operating mainland China versions of Blizzard games, such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch; however, Parsons stated that there was no explicit deal to publish Bungie’s games in China.
Initial speculation on the collaboration between these two companies was that they would be working on a new AAA title (potentially named “Matter”) and not any Destiny games; however, in September 2021, rumors began to surface (based on job postings on the company’s official website) that Bungie was working on a mobile game set within the Destiny universe. Then in April 2022 another job post indicated that Bungie was working to extend their existing proprietary game engine (the…
“Tiger Engine” to support mobile devices. In July 2022, a source with knowledge of NetEase’s development plans informed The Game Post that they were working on a new Destiny game not related to Bungie’s concurrent title Destiny 2. It was stated that development efforts on the game had been underway for well over two years.
GameSpot then reported in September 2024 that, despite recent staffing cuts at Bungie (impacting 220 employees), the game was still in development and would be called Destiny Rising (stylized without a colon). In the same month, a former NetEase developer’s LinkedIn profile described a NetEase project on the “Destiny IP” (assumed to be Destiny Rising) as “a project developed jointly by Netease and Bungie” and “an MMOFPS/TPS + RPG game, with high standards”.
Following its initial announcement, further pre-release updates for the game came in May 2025, at NetEase’s 520 Conference (livestreamed on platforms such as Bilibili), which revealed fully voiced lines of character dialog and weapon dual-wielding. This was followed by an announcement of the game’s first closed beta test for the same month.
Release
In July 2025, NetEase announced Rising’s release date as August 28, 2025, for both iOS and Android, alongside a new gameplay trailer, the start of a pre-registration event, and pre-loads on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Later that same month, it was confirmed that the game had surpassed five million pre-registrations, with players receiving bonus in-game items to commemorate the milestone. By August 2025, this figure had grown to 10 million.
Though described as “worldwide”, the August 28 release excluded several regions, such as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It was accompanied by multiple in-game events, including a cross-promotion allowing players to unlock an exclusive in-game bonus for Destiny 2.
NetEase also released details of the enhancements made following the beta testing period, and a roadmap showing the timing of its first and second “seasons” (September and November 2025, respectively). This was followed by its first raid (referred to as a Gauntlet), Monolith’s Fall, at the start of September. On 19 September, NetEase kicked off an in-game race, whereby teams of players competed to be the first to finish the game’s “Gauntlet Onslaught” mode (though the rewards were not announced simultaneously).
Reception
Pre-release
During the initial alpha tests for Rising, it received praise for its presentation, effective controls, including touchscreen support, and capturing the look and feel of the Destiny series. In their preview, Jonathan LoChiatto of Destructoid noted that while it was not perfect, it remarkably felt like playing Destiny on a mobile device. Everything a Destiny player might expect was on show and available in Destiny: Rising, from Strikes to PvP and even Raid-like challenges.
Common areas of criticism were the game’s scripting and voice acting. Paul Tassi of Forbes wrote that “The worst part of the core game itself is the writing and voicework. The world does not remotely carry the same tone as the main game, not even close … The awful script is matched only by the worse voicework … All of this is so bad it encouraged me to play the game silently most of the time.”
An area of controversy was the game’s use of AI-generated voice acting, which received negative criticism from both players and professionals within the voice acting industry (during a time of SAG-AFTRA strikes related to AI replacing human actors). Although NetEase responded with a clarification that these performances were only pre-launch placeholders, some felt that the “damage” had already been caused.
Player counts and revenue
Upon release, Rising reached top place in both the App Store and Google Play charts in multiple regions. In the days following, it received triple the number of viewers on the streaming platform Twitch than the series’ main concurrent title, Destiny 2. Harry Alston of TheGamer also speculated that the game achieving top position within the App Store indicated a larger player count than Destiny 2 (which had experienced a significant drop in concurrent Steam players) at that point in time.
Within six days of launch, the game had achieved over 1 million iOS installs and generated an estimated US$2,000,000 in gross player spend.
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