Destiny is an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game series developed by Bungie and previously published by Activision.

Set in a "mythic science fiction" world, the series features a multiplayer "shared-world" environment with elements of role-playing games.

Guardians journey to different planets to investigate and destroy the alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out, while also engaging in an intergalactic war against the Traveler's ancient enemy, the Darkness—Guardians also later learn to control and use its power.

[4] The setting, about 700 years in the future from present day, follows a prosperous period of exploration, peace, and technological advancement known as the Golden Age.

[5] In a universe where humans have spread out and colonized planets in the Solar System, an event known as "the Collapse" saw the mysterious dissolution of these colonies, the end of the Golden Age, and mankind teetering on the brink of extinction.

The only known survivors of the Collapse are those living on Earth, who were saved by "the Traveler", a white, spherical celestial body whose appearance centuries before had enabled humans to reach the stars.

The player takes on the role of a Guardian, and is tasked with reviving the Traveler while investigating and destroying alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out.

[7] Both games use settings on various planets, moons, and other features within the Solar System as the Guardians fight to defend the remnants of the Golden Age.

Beyond Light also reintroduced Earth's Cosmodrome from Destiny as well as a new location, Jupiter's moon Europa, and a new social space called the H.E.L.M.

Another social space, Xûr's Treasure Hoard, which is located in an unknown realm of the Nine called Eternity, was added in Season 15 as part of the Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack.

A fifth social space, the Hall of Champions, was added in Season 23 as part of Into the Light, but was removed upon the release of The Final Shape.

The expansive universe of Destiny features numerous recurring non-player characters (NPCs) to assist the player.

Other key members of the Vanguard include Lord Shaxx (voiced by Lennie James), who oversees the Crucible activities, Saint-14 (voiced by Brian T. Delaney), who is a fabled Titan of the past and rescued from death through time travel that manages the Trials of Osiris matches, and Iron Lord Saladin Forge (voiced by Keith Ferguson), who had helped to end the conflict necessary to make the Last City a possibility and oversees the Iron Banner Crucible event.

The Vanguard had also governed the Last City in the Consensus alongside three factions of citizens: the Future War Cult led by Lakshmi-2 (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo), which had used Vex technology to see constant conflict in the Last City's future and thus maintained preparedness for this, Dead Orbit led by Arach Jalaal (voiced by Peter Stormare), which believed that humanity must abandon the System and colonize planets outside it, and New Monarchy led by Executor Hideo (voiced by James Remar), which sought to replace the current democratic leadership of the Vanguard with a single powerful ruler—all of these factions were disbanded following the death of Lakshmi-2 at the end of Season 14, Season of the Splicer.

The Vanguard is also aided by non-Guardian humans or allies, including: Amanda Holliday (voiced by Courtenay Taylor), who ran flights and transit operations for missions but was killed in Season of Defiance; Devrim Kay (voiced by Gideon Emery), a former Last City militia who maintains watch over the EDZ; Brother Vance (voiced by Bob O'Donnell), a devoted disciple of Osiris that oversaw the Lighthouse on Mercury—he entered the Infinite Forest on Mercury upon the conclusion of Season of Arrivals with his fate unknown; Failsafe (voiced by Joy Osmanski), an artificial intelligence with a split personality from the starship Exodus Black that had crashed centuries before on Nessus; Petra Venj (voiced by April Stewart), the Awoken Last City ambassador of Queen Mara Sov of the Reef and who monitors activities in the Dreaming City, and Mara Sov herself (voiced by Kristen Potter), who is indifferent to the Vanguard but seeks to eliminate the threat of the Witness and lends her powers to the Guardian to traverse the Ascendant Realm and the Awoken ley line network.

The Scorn, in addition to similarities to the Fallen, do not take cover and have the most aggressive artificial intelligence, with the ability from Dark Ether to move incorporeally a short distance to evade damage.

The Destiny series is primarily a first-person shooter, with the player taking the role of a Guardian, a person granted powers of Light by the Traveler.

The player chooses from one of three main character classes: Titans, who specialize in melee and defense, Hunters, who can dodge and use stealth to their advantage, and Warlocks, who harness the power into magic-like abilities.

A sixth power, Prismatic, was introduced in Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which allows combinations of Light and Darkness abilities to be used in tandem.

Weapons, which include numerous varieties of guns as well as bows, swords, grenade and rocket launchers, fall into three classes of Kinetic (which lack elemental damage), Energy (which are tuned to one specific element), and Power weapons (which do larges amounts of damage but typically limited in ammo supply), with the Guardian able to equip one of each in combat.

Armor pieces can be mixed to adjust the Guardian's innate attributes such as defense, melee attack power, and rate of cooldown for abilities.

Halo was used as a flagship title for the Xbox console by Microsoft, which had acquired Bungie as an internal studio in 2000 for its development.

According to Bungie's Chief Operating Officer Pete Parsons, Bungie knew they could create works that would enter the popular culture as they had with Halo, but they wanted to go for something more epic with this game: "We like to tell big stories and we want people to put the Destiny universe on the same shelf they put Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Star Wars; we've already seen them do that with Halo.

[22] Alongside work on expansions, Bungie also began planning towards Destiny's sequel shortly after the first game's release.

In 2018, Bungie announced they had amicably agreed with Activision to break the long-term publishing contract they had, and would proceed to distribute Destiny 2 on their own, transitioning the Windows version to Steam over several months.

Instead, Sony's investment would help Bungie with hiring for developers to expand their work on the Destiny franchise and other planned games.

Both companies stated that the deal would not affect platform availability or exclusivity for Destiny 2, but instead was geared towards media beyond video games that Bungie had been interested in pursuing for some time.

[25] Following this acquisition, and in part due to poor response to the Lightfall expansion, Bungie went through two major rounds of layoffs in 2023 and 2024.

The former Emperor, Calus, invites a fireteam of Guardians to board his ship ("Leviathan" raid) to complete a series of challenges.

[39] Destiny Rising is an upcoming mobile game being developed by NetEase with Bungie's support, with plans to start alpha testing in late 2024.