Marathon Server Slam Had Surprisingly Low Extraction Rates On One Particular Map

Bungie released a ton of new statistics following the end of the recent Server Slam for Marathon, highlighting player behaviors, a staggering NPC kill rate, as well as which map proved to be the most difficult to extract from. After a lengthy development cycle, one that included long periods of silence, game delays, and even art plagiarism accusations, Marathon has finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. The game has seemingly managed to turn popular opinion around as well, thanks in large part to impressive cinematic trailers and a very well-received Server Slam test period.

With many still curious about Bungie’s extraction shooter, the server slam was a chance to jump in and check out the early parts of the game days before it was scheduled to release in full. With the increased marketing push as well as a major curiosity factor, Marathon managed to earn major player numbers during the Server Slam, as the Steam version alone was able to hit over 140,000 concurrent players at launch. While the Server Slam was just a small slice of the overall game, players were still able to set some massive numbers while playing, which Bungie has collected and shared.

Marathon’s Player Survival Rate Is Surprisingly Low

With the Server Slam now at an end and Marathon officially launching on March 5, Bungie has compiled and shared a heap of data based on player behavior over the weekend session. Players were able to check out two different maps, Perimeter and Dire Marsh, during the Server Slam and both proved to be tricky to escape from. Perimeter only had a 41.8% exfil rate, with Dire Marsh coming in even lower at just 35.6%. In fact, Bungie even revealed that, while rare, there were even some matches where no one extracted at all.

In terms of the various runner shells in Marathon, the game’s version of classes, it was the sneak Assassin shell that proved to be the most popular with players. What likely benefited this shell the most is the fact that it is also very solo-friendly, allowing players to not only go invisible for a short period of time, but utilize smoke bombs to take enemies by surprise or make a quick escape from a rough situation. Rooks were also fairly popular as almost 1 million were deployed and just a little over half of that number were killed during matches.

Image via Bungie

Although player feedback commonly mentioned a lack of PvP engagements in Marathon, the numbers seem to back that up slightly as 9.1 million runners were killed, while players were able to take down over 129 million UESC enemies. There were 16.5 million player deaths during matches as well. Just for fun, Bungie also posted some stats surrounding what kind of items players were looting with “Premium Tick Milk” being extracted over 145,000 times, and over 384,000 “drinkable cheeseburgers” being taken as well.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Start

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)Start

With extraction rates so low, it’s easy to wonder how much harder the maps not included in the Server Slam will be, as both Perimeter and DIre Marsh are still considered the earlier and more basic maps in Marathon. However, it stands to reason that as players become more familiar with the intracasies of the game as well as earn better gear, survival and exfil rates should improve. However, with Bungie teasing a Night Mode for Dire Marsh in Marathon Season 2, things could once again spiral back down after the server wipe. Plus, with teases surrounding the Cryo Archive map on the UESC Marathon ship and difficult enemies stalking the derelict vessel, it’ll be interesting to see how successful players will be trying to extract that valuable loot.

Released

March 5, 2026

ESRB

Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op