To investigate the effect of blistering on hydrogen isotope (HI) retention, a series of deuterium plasma exposures were performed using recrystallized tungsten samples at 500 K with high fluences up to 1.0 × 1028 ions m−2 in the linear plasma device STEP. An increase of blister density and deuterium retention was observed with increasing plasma fluence. Based on the simulation of the thermal desorption spectra using TMAP, defects with different detrapping energies are found to be located at a depth of tens of microns, which coincides with the depth of the grain boundaries (GBs) close to the surface. The defect characterizations using transmission electron microscopy and positron annihilation Doppler broadening identified the defects as dislocation type and vacancy type, which were created by blistering. It is suggested that these defects can diffuse deep into the material, and the interaction between the diffusion of the defects and GBs causes a peculiar deuterium desorption spectrum over plasma fluences. Additionally, these blister-induced defects are the main source of deuterium retention. Regarding the effect of the blister-induced defects on deuterium retention, a blister-dominated retention mechanism is proposed to describe HI retention in conditions when blistering is severe as in this study. This investigation provides a new insight into the effect of blistering on retention and the modelling of retention in a tokamak edge plasma environment.