Marathon fans and haters alike have been watching its Steam player count like hawks, as it’s remained the most searched game on SteamDB ever since it released. While those bashing Marathon are hoping the player count drops even more, as they’re strangely hopeful that the game will fail, those who are hooked on battling the UESC and other players for loot are hoping for a big turnaround. While Bungie and Sony have taken a first shot at sparking a Marathon renaissance via a sale on all platforms, Season 2 being a hit would go a long way to boosting the player count.
While a fair bit of content is already confirmed for Marathon Season 2 — a new Runner called the Sentinel, a nighttime version of Dire Marsh, and the Cradle, which will allow deeper Shell stat tweaks — there’s room for some big quality-of-life changes and test results to take effect. If Bungie is smart about how it handles Season 2’s content drop, then Marathon’s player count could start to climb, allowing the game to recover before it tries more drastic moves like a free-to-play release. With the core gameplay and lore of Marathon being stellar, Season 2 will hopefully fix its one true issue: maintaining a large player base.
Like other extraction shooters, Marathon will have seasonal resets, with upgrades removed and vaults emptied to put everyone on a level playing field.
Marathon Releases Patch Notes for April 21 Update
Bungie releases Update 1.0.6.1 for Marathon, making a number of adjustments to the game in addition to big nerfs for the popular WSTR shotgun.
Making Marathon’s Experimental Playlists Permanent
Since its release, Marathon has been testing out the community’s most demanded methods of play through some temporary playlists that rotate in and out. Duo queue on various maps and sponsored kit-only queues on Dire Marsh have both been big hits, with the former benefiting players who only have one friend to play with and the latter creating a more fair battle royale-like gameplay loop. Hopefully, Season 2 will make sure that duos always have a way to play together. And as for Sponsored Kits, it could serve as a great free-to-play experience instead of making the entire game free. This way, players on the fence about Marathon could try it alongside their friends, experiencing the game in the most fair and accessible way possible. They could only be allowed to play whatever map is in the sponsored kit rotation for the week, and their vault could be inaccessible until they purchase the full game, allowing them to set themselves up for success whenever they do want to buy in.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
Improvements to Marathon’s Ranked Mode
While Bungie is trying to crack down on the cheaters that have infested Marathon’s ranked play, there are some issues that still need to be addressed. First, there need to be some new barriers introduced that stop players from boosting their way into Pinnacle. Second, and more importantly, Ranked matchmaking needs to be overhauled. While it could be due to population issues, it’s not uncommon for players to encounter golds when they’re in bronze 3, fights that are unsurprisingly one-sided due to a difference in gear and skill. Even if match search time is longer, keeping Marathon Ranked matches restricted to the same tier would be a welcome adjustment. Gear caps in addition to gear requirements could prevent players from being too kitted out, keeping the playing field level.
A Clan System With a Shared Vault
Given the existence of Destiny 2’s Clan system, which provides upgrades to grind for and some bonus rewards to collect each week, it’s surprising that one doesn’t exist for Marathon yet. It could suit an extraction shooter particularly well, as players could be given a large, shared vault to donate items to. Anything players extract (or perhaps put in the DCON, to give the device a purpose outside of contracts) could show up in the clan’s vault, which all players in the clan could pull from at will. This way, players who have gotten their upgrades can donate materials like Biolens Seeds to their friends who either have bad luck or less time to play, ensuring they’re able to get kitted out properly whenever they need to. Weapons, shields, and so on could also be donated, essentially letting players trade amongst those they trust. Perhaps there could be a daily item value limit so that players do not take too much, or maybe they have to donate a set value before pulling from the clan’s vault. Either way, this would be an incredible addition.
Delivering an Update on Marathon Season 3
Finally, and perhaps more importantly than any addition to the actual game that could be made in Season 2, Bungie has to prove to Marathon fans that it really is planning to stick with the game for “years.” Or, more specifically, that Sony will allow it to keep up support for the long haul. Removing the redacted label from Season 3 and detailing whatever its new content ends up being — a brand-new, full-sized map like Cryo, weather variants for existing maps, more Shell types, or crossover Runner skins — would go a long way to reassuring fans that there’s a lot to look forward to. The quickest way to relieve fans’ concerns and silence Marathon’s doubters would be to show that Season 3 (and maybe even a few Seasons after that) is actively being worked on and will still release. While those hoping for a full new map in Season 2 are out of luck, that doesn’t mean that the Season can’t do a world of good for the game.
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
