After a tumultuous 12 months leading up to launch delays, Marathon is finally here. It's Bungie's first big game since Destiny 2 and the first title released under the PlayStation banner. People were quick to compare the initial marathon runner numbers to Splay the Spire 2, which drew 500,000 over the weekend. But comparing Marathon's player numbers to the performance of other live service games at launch will give you a much better idea of whether Bungie's new extraction shooter has what it takes to stick around.
Let's solve this problem early. Yes, this article only discusses Steam numbers. I realize this only paints part of the picture, since Marathon and most of the games I'm comparing are available on other platforms. However, figures for other platforms are not available and we only include Steam figures for all games mentioned in this article, so the comparison is as fair as possible.
The number of marathon runners did not decrease significantly heading into the weekend.
Marathon peaked at just over 88,000 players on Steam. According to SteamDB, when it launched last week. That number is down by about 10,000 from its weekend high, and while Bungie expected its marathon opening weekend's high to be higher than the numbers it recorded when it launched on Thursday, positives can be drawn from comparing the weekend's numbers to other recent live service hits.
High Guard actually debuted stomachteahour 97,000+ concurrent players On Steam at launch. More than half of the players left within 24 hours, and by the end of the first There were only 15,000 people trapped around here.. Of course, Bungie would have liked Marathon's release numbers to be higher. But if 78,000 of the 88,000 players stayed interested enough to not only come back for more on Friday, but also keep coming back on Saturday and Sunday, that should be considered a win. This is critical in this challenging live service environment.
Steam levels may go up or down. Look at Arc Raiders.
There are positives to be taken from the Arc Raiders' trajectory as well. Even though Marathon's launch was well below what Embark's extraction shooter achieved during its launch weekend. 354,000 people checked out Arc Raiders right away.However, that number was significantly lower than the goals to be achieved in the future.
The weekend after the Arc Raiders' opening gambit, That number rose to 462,000.. Seven days later, another 20,000 players joined the bandwagon. That number hasn't dropped much, as the Arc Raiders surpassed 400,000 concurrent players for four other weeks in December and January.
If Marathon can do what Arc Raiders did, on a slightly smaller scale, we probably won't see the numbers drop as slowly as is the case with other live service games. The sustained player count marathon achieved over launch weekend may encourage others to check it out in the future.
That being said, just because Marathon didn't hit 500,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch doesn't mean it was a total flop. 78,000 is more than 100 times Concord's high.So at least Marathon is safe from Firewalk, the only game in PlayStation's rug-pull Firewalk. Even if the number of marathons doesn't increase significantly, a consistent player count of between 50,000 and 100,000 may be enough to keep you going for years. There are other platforms to consider as well. Unlike Highguard, everyone playing the marathon paid $40 for the privilege.
- released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen/Animation Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, User Interaction
- multiplayer
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Online multiplayer, online co-op
