After drumming up a decent amount of excitement in the final months before launch (a stark contrast to the skepticism it was met with after playtests last year) Marathon has burst onto the extraction shooter scene with plenty of glowing endorsements. However, while we don’t officially know what constitutes a success in Bungie and Sony’s eyes, it’s not drawing in the same kind of crowds as Arc Raiders does, for example. A launch day peak of 88,000 players on Steam alone was a solid showing, but things have been steadily dropping off since. A week on from the big day, and Marathon has slipped outside of the top 50 most-played games on Valve’s platform.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Marathon – some rough edges and questionable UI design decisions aside, I’ve been loving its aesthetic, intensity, and gunplay. I’m not alone – it sits at a very healthy 90% positive user rating on Steam, which is mightily impressive given that live service multiplayer games often draw plenty of reactionary ire. Marathon’s certainly swatted away any predictions that it would be a catastrophic flop like Sony’s infamous Concord or, more recently, Highguard.
However, with Destiny 2 seriously struggling in its post-The Final Shape era (and with Sony’s ruthlessness to cut costs, as it demonstrated with its shuttering of Bluepoint Games recently) it feels like there’s huge pressure on Bungie’s shoulders with Marathon. While I don’t believe it’s anywhere near a total disaster situation yet, seeing a week-old, big-budget multiplayer shooter slide outside of Steam’s top 50 is a touch concerning.
At the time of writing on March 12, Marathon is currently appearing at number 60 in Steam’s list of the most-played games, with a live active player count of 28,187. It’s definitely worth flagging that, per the typical trend line for Marathon, this is not the most popular time of day for players. However, despite its age, it’s currently sitting beneath several other competitive shooters, such as Battlefield 6 and Marvel Rivals.
Of course, Steam is just one platform – there are no doubt plenty more players on Playstation and Xbox. However, journalist Paul Tassi recently claimed in a video that, according to his sources at Bungie, PC is the “main platform for the game” in terms of users, so seeing how it fairs on Valve’s platform is particularly pertinent here.
The addition of Cryo Archive, a punishing endgame map currently being unlocked through a community puzzle, may see player counts surge again, but equally, this content is largely for the most dedicated and skilled players.
Given that Destiny 2 is also in a dire state at the moment, it feels pretty critical for Bungie that Marathon doesn’t fall much further down the pecking order and that, at the very least, its current player count stabilizes. Destiny 2 is currently at its lowest point ever in terms of Steam player count, with daily peaks dipping beneath 10,000 people. If Marathon continues to drop and reaches similar levels, I do genuinely worry about Bungie’s future.
Player counts aren’t the only stats that matter, of course, and perhaps some healthy in-game spending and its $40 price tag will bolster Marathon for longer than people think. But I certainly expected, given how fresh-out-the-box it is, that it would be higher up Steam’s rankings right now.
