Destiny Microtransactions Are Ridiculously Popular

If you’ve ever wondered why developers/publishers are plugging microtransactions into their games, this latest piece of news from the folks at Bungie might clear things up a bit: Destiny’s cosmetic items are selling like hotcakes. Or space hotcakes. Are there hotcakes in space?

According to a recent reddit post, Destiny’s microtransactions are doing quite well. Stacked up against all other add-on content being sold through the PlayStation Network, in fact, they’re taking the top three spots.

Taking a gander at the PlayStation Network’s top five add-on money makers at the moment, Destiny: The Taken King expansion is holding down the number one spot. Coming in at number two and three are the 1,000 and 2,000 Silver bundles, respectively. If you’re not familiar with Destiny’s recently implemented microtransactions, Silver is basically the in-game currency that can only be purchased for real world money.

Like many similar games, however, Bungie aren’t using Silver for gross game-altering add-ons or specialized gear. Instead, Silver can currently only be used to buy cosmetic items, like new emotes or even some Halloween masks for the ongoing Festival of the Lost.

In case you’re curious, the number four add-on spot for PSN goes to the Minecraft: Story Mode season pass, followed by the 500 Silver pack for Destiny at number five.

To put that into figures we can all better understand, Destiny Silver sells $5 for the 500 pack, $10 for 1,000 and $20 for 2,000. You get a few hundred extra on top of that at each level above 500 to make for a little extra bang for your buck.

In other words, Destiny’s microtransactions are a hit, and that’s actually not bad news. As stated above, we are all for this types of for-pay content being added into games. So long as it doesn’t turn the game into a pay-to-win scenario, there’s nothing wrong with a developer offering extra goodies for folks who want to pay a bit extra. It doesn’t hurt the players who don’t want to buy the extra content, and gives folks with money burning a hole in their pocket somewhere to spend it. In the end, it’s all going toward making Destiny a bigger and better game, as those funds will likely supply Bungie with a means to keep on trucking through the game’s planned 10-year life cycle.

But, as with all things, we’re interested in hearing what our readers think about this news. Whether or not you have an opinion on the Destiny microtransactions or not, how do you see these small fees for small items fitting into the future gaming landscape? Let us know in the comments below.