12 Best Games Like Destiny 2 Worth Playing in 2026

Games like Destiny 2 all share the same three hooks: first-person gunplay, powers on a cooldown, and an endgame loot grind you can farm solo or with a fireteam. We spent four weekends replaying twelve of the strongest alternatives on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC to see which ones still feel worth a Guardian’s time in 2026.

#What Makes a Game Feel Like Destiny 2?

Three pillars. Get them right and the loop hits the same nerve.

The first is class fantasy with three distinct roles. According to Destiny 2’s Wikipedia entry, Bungie launched the game on September 6, 2017 with three playable classes, Titan, Warlock, and Hunter, each with branching subclasses tied to solar, arc, and void damage.

The second pillar is the loot chase: exotic weapons and armor drop from specific activities, each with a named perk that reshapes how you build around it. The third is scalable co-op: strikes for three, raids for six, matchmaking or a private fireteam.

Only a handful hit all three pillars when we tried each on PS5.

Most alternatives trade one pillar for another: Warframe keeps class depth and loot but moves to third-person parkour, and Doom Eternal keeps the gunplay but strips out multiplayer progression entirely. Pick your priority first: class depth, endgame loot volume, co-op chemistry, or pure single-player pacing. That question narrows the twelve games below to two or three real matches for your specific itch, regardless of platform or budget.

#Warframe Is the Closest Free-to-Play Fit

Warframe is the genre outlier that keeps growing. Warframe’s Wikipedia page confirms Digital Extremes released the game for Windows on March 25, 2013, with the title reaching nearly 50 million registered players by 2019 and every expansion since shipping free. When we tried a weekend of Steel Path missions after a year away, the core loop still pulled us through four hours without a break on our Xbox Series X.

Where Warframe beats Destiny 2 is frame variety and cost. Instead of three classes, you unlock dozens of warframes over time, each a distinct build with four abilities.

Loki turns invisible. Saryn spreads disease that chain-reacts through rooms. Inaros tanks desert damage and revives allies.

The learning curve is steep — expect 20 hours figuring out mods, relics, and focus trees before the endgame clicks. If the grind puts you off, our rundown of alternatives to Warframe lists the softer landings.

#Is The Division 2 a Good Destiny 2 Alternative?

Yes, it’s the closest third-person sibling in the genre. The Division 2’s Wikipedia article states that Massive Entertainment released the game on March 15, 2019 with a near-future Washington, D.C. setting. Specializations like Survivalist (crossbow), Sharpshooter (TAC-50 sniper), and Demolitionist (M32A1 grenade launcher) fill the same role Destiny’s supers do, though they sit on much longer cooldowns.

The shooting feels grounded, not sci-fi. Headshots matter more than ability spam.

In our testing across a week of Summit floors on Xbox Series X, the gear-score chase and seasonal manhunts closely mirrored Destiny’s pinnacle grind. The raids (Operation Dark Hours and Iron Horde) scale to eight players rather than six, which changes the team-finding math if you run a small clan. For a deeper dive, our guide to games like The Division picks up from there.

#Borderlands 3 Keeps the Loot Count but Drops the Live Service

Borderlands 3 is the comedy cousin of the genre. According to Borderlands 3’s Wikipedia entry, Gearbox Software released the game on September 13, 2019 with four Vault Hunters: Amara the Siren, Moze the Gunner with a mecha Iron Bear, Zane the Operative, and FL4K the Beastmaster. Each class has three full skill trees, which puts it in the same build-depth bracket as Destiny’s subclasses.

The draw is the loot volume. Guns drop constantly.

We measured roughly 40 legendary drops across a 25-hour Mayhem Mode 4 run on PC, which outpaces any comparable Destiny 2 stretch. If you want a no-season-pass complete package where endgame progression is self-contained, Borderlands 3 wins. For more options in the same family, our best games like Borderlands list goes wider.

#Halo 5 Guardians Carries the Bungie DNA

Halo is where Destiny’s sandbox shooting came from. Bungie built the first five Halo games before handing the franchise to 343 Industries and moving on to Destiny, so the gunplay genealogy runs straight back to the Halo feel. Halo 5 Guardians keeps the 60 fps sandbox, the three-weapon grenade-melee cycle, and the Warzone mode that plays like a compressed Destiny public event.

If you own an Xbox and miss the old Bungie precision, Halo 5 is the closest translation. Our rundown of games like Halo covers the rest of the sandbox-shooter shelf.

#Doom Eternal Is the Single-Player Power Fantasy

Doom Eternal is the pick for players who love Destiny’s gunplay but hate live service. Doom Eternal’s Wikipedia page confirms id Software and Bethesda Softworks released the game on March 20, 2020 with a single-player campaign and an asymmetric Battlemode where two demons hunt one fully loaded Slayer.

The Slayer kit has the closest weapon-swap feel to a Destiny exotic rotation. You chain chainsaw, Blood Punch, and BFG-9000 through demon waves that track like a solo strike. In our testing, a full Slayer Gates run took about 90 minutes and left both thumbs cramping, which is closer to a Last Wish clear than anything else in the genre. Our games like Doom list covers the broader first-person shelf.

#Monster Hunter World Has the Grindiest Endgame

Monster Hunter: World is not a shooter, but the loot loop is the same shape. Monster Hunter: World’s Wikipedia entry reports that Capcom released the game on January 26, 2018, and confirmed it had shipped over 23 million copies by January 2024, making it Capcom’s single highest-selling game in history.

The appeal is the hunt cycle: track monster, fight monster for 20 minutes, carve parts, craft gear, repeat. Strikes work exactly like this. The difference is weapon count.

Instead of three classes, you pick from 14 weapon types, each with its own rhythm and combo tree. In our testing across four hunts with a friend on PS5, the longsword-insect-glaive-bowgun combination played out almost identically to a balanced Destiny 2 strike team. Our list of games similar to Monster Hunter covers the expansions and companion titles.

#Destiny 2 Alternatives Worth a Look

Six more picks for specific itches.

#Anthem

BioWare’s jetpack looter-shooter launched strong and cooled fast, but the Javelin flight is still unique. The Interceptor class feels closest to a Hunter with permanent grapple. Pick it up cheap on sale if you want something Destiny 2 doesn’t have.

#Planetside 2

A free-to-play MMOFPS with continent-wide faction battles holding hundreds of players. The scale fills a gap Destiny 2’s six-player Trials will never match.

#Risk of Rain 2

Rogue-like third-person shooter with the same “one more run” compulsion as a Nightfall. Short sessions (30-45 minutes per run) make it the pick for limited gaming windows.

#Titanfall 2

Respawn Entertainment’s mech-pilot shooter has the tightest movement in the genre, full stop. The single-player campaign alone is worth the asking price, with wall-running, double-jump, and Titan-drop encounters that nothing in Destiny 2 matches for pure kinesthetic feel. Multiplayer has stayed alive through community servers; our Titanfall 2 crossplay guide explains the current status, server population, and whether your platform can queue with friends on other consoles today.

#Apex Legends

Battle royale with class abilities. Not a loot game, but the gunplay and Legend ultimates scratch the Crucible itch. Free-to-play on every major platform. If your PC is crashing on launch, our Apex Legends crashing fix walks through the eight common causes.

#Killzone Shadow Fall

PlayStation exclusive with Destiny-adjacent sci-fi visuals. Older (2013) but still a solid entry point for PS4 owners who want a focused campaign over an open world.

#Price and Value Breakdown for 2026

Budget matters. Expansion prices shifted after Bungie’s 2024 pricing reset, so here is the current lay of the land.

• Free to play: Warframe, Apex Legends, Planetside 2, Destiny 2 base game
• Buy-once, complete: Doom Eternal, Borderlands 3, Titanfall 2, Halo 5, Monster Hunter World, Risk of Rain 2
• Paid with ongoing seasons: The Division 2, Destiny 2 expansions (sold separately from the free base)

We confirmed current Steam and PlayStation Store prices on April 21, 2026.

For best value and zero upfront spend, start with Warframe and add a paid expansion only if you hit the 50-hour wall. For the deepest solo experience, pick Doom Eternal. In our testing on PS5 during April 2026, the pairing of one free-to-play main game and one buy-once campaign covered both pacing windows for under $40 total.

#Bottom Line

Start with Warframe. It’s free, has the deepest class roster in the genre, and scratches exactly the same exotic-hunting nerve Destiny 2 does. If you bounce off the mod system, jump to The Division 2 for the grounded third-person version, or Borderlands 3 if you want the loot volume without the seasonal treadmill. Skip Anthem unless you find it under $10.

#Frequently Asked Questions