Following a lengthy delay last year, Destiny and Halo developer Bungie has officially launched its new extraction shooter, Marathon. While the long-awaited PvPvE shooter is finally available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, Marathon‘s Steam figures have failed to come close to that of ARC Raiders‘ launch, which is undoubtedly its biggest competitor.
After finding relative success with The Finals, Embark Studios returned last year and knocked it out of the park with its second-ever title, ARC Raiders. What originally started out as a PvE-only game, similar to that of Helldivers 2, eventually pivoted to also include PvP, as the team behind ARC Raiders felt as though it wasn’t fun enough. Clearly, this was the right move, as ARC Raiders found huge success when it was released back in October, peaking at more than 481,000 concurrent players on Steam in its first few weeks, selling over 12 million copies, and even picking up the award for Best Multiplayer at the 2025 Game Awards.
Marathon: Which Runner/Class Should You Play With?
Players will take the role of different Runners in Marathon, each featuring a distinct playstyle through their abilities, here’s who to pick.
Marathon’s Launches to 86,000 Concurrent Players on Steam
With ARC Raiders currently dominating the extraction shooter genre, many were eager to see if Bungie could dethrone the title with its newest release, Marathon. The shooter launched earlier today, March 5, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. While reviews have been mostly positive on Steam, Marathon has peaked at just over 86,000 concurrent players on the platform, which is a long way off from ARC Raiders‘ impressive 264,000 concurrent players it had on Steam at launch. Both games were released on a Thursday, so while Marathon‘s figures could continue to climb over the weekend, it seems unlikely to overtake ARC Raiders.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
There could be a multitude of reasons for Marathon not coming anywhere close to ARC Raiders‘ huge Steam figures, with the most obvious one being that it could simply be more popular on consoles. While recent data shows that ARC Raiders is the most-played game on Steam, titles such as Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Grand Theft Auto 5 are all beating the extraction shooter on consoles, proving that the majority of ARC Raiders players are on PC. We won’t know for sure until the data is released, but it’s possible that Marathon is outperforming ARC Raiders on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
At the time of writing, reviews for Marathon do appear to be positive. The shooter currently has over 1,400 reviews on Steam with a “very positive” review rating. Fans have praised the aesthetic of Bungie’s latest title, as well as the solid gunplay, calling it “fun” and “innovative.” Many of the reviews are, unsurprisingly, comparing it to ARC Raiders, but note that Marathon is nowhere near as beginner-friendly as Embark’s extraction shooter. “Just give yourself time to understand how the game loop works, and eventually everything will just click,” one reviewer said.
This could also be partly why Marathon hasn’t found the same playerbase as ARC Raiders did at launch, as it’s a much more daunting and complicated shooter. ARC Raiders‘ aggression-based matchmaking makes it easy for those who just want to play PvE to do just that, whereas there is no such thing as a friendly lobby when it comes to Marathon.
Reviews may be positive, but one thing that players are continuing to complain about is Marathon‘s clunky and confusing user interface. Thankfully, this was something that was picked up on during last week’s Server Slam, and Bungie says it plans to iterate on the UI post-launch, which hopefully means changes should be made in future updates.
- Released
-
March 5, 2026
- ESRB
-
Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
