Destiny 2's Biggest YouTuber Datto Retires From the Game on August 18

Datto, the largest YouTube creator covering Destiny 2 with 1.2 million subscribers, announced August 18 as his final day making content for the game. He posted the news on X himself:

"As of now, August 18th will be my last day as 'Datto Does Destiny.' I plan on retiring from the game and content creation for the game. Deadlock will be my new home going into the future, along with variety."

He's covered the franchise since before its 2014 launch, filming E3 coverage and concept art breakdowns before the game even shipped. The channel grew to 2,519 videos and more than 557 million views, with an 807,000-follower Twitch presence averaging close to 900 concurrent viewers. He also competed directly in World-First raid races, and his team came within an empty boss health bar of finishing 2025's Eternal Desert raid first before wiping.

The channel and its full archive stay online, and Datto said occasional uploads or community posts could still happen after the 18th, just not as regular Destiny coverage. Fan reaction on his announcement post leaned heavily nostalgic, with longtime viewers crediting him for getting them into the game in the first place.

The timing lines up with a stretch where the game's remaining community has increasingly had to fill gaps the studio itself left open. A fan-made mod is restoring access to the vaulted Leviathan raid that Bungie's own shrunken development team has no plans to bring back, and a Change.org petition asking for Destiny 3 passed 170,000 signatures months ago with no funded sequel in sight. Datto stepping away from the largest platform still actively covering the game removes one more piece of what used to run through Bungie's own orbit.

I think losing the biggest voice in Destiny media matters more than another dev leaving, since Datto's raid guides and commentary shaped how a huge share of the community actually played the game, not just how it was covered. I'd guess his move to Deadlock will pull a real chunk of that audience with him, since a creator's viewers tend to follow the person more than the franchise once the franchise stops giving them new reasons to stay.

Whatever Datto uploads on August 18 will likely be the closest thing Destiny 2 gets to an official send-off from someone Bungie itself never employed.