The wait for Marathon is finally over. Bungie’s extraction shooter had a long and rocky road to get to this point, but it finally made it across the finish line. Marathon has already received a lot of strong feedback, which is promising. At the time of writing this, the game’s Steam reviews are sitting at “Very Positive,” and the pre-launch Server Slam helped generate some much-needed positive hype. However, its main competitor continues to reign supreme.
ARC Raiders launched back in October, and it introduced one of the most accessible extraction shooters yet. Before ARC Raiders, the genre was a more niche world, but Embark Studios’ take on this gameplay has attracted an impressive player count. The Marathon vs. ARC Raiders debate has the potential to be the extraction shooter genre’s version of Call of Duty vs. Battlefield, but ARC Raiders is clearly in the lead, at least when it comes to Steam numbers.
Best PC Settings for Marathon (Optimization Guide)
While Marathon is reasonably optimized on PC, players can further improve its performance by trying these best settings and achieving higher FPS.
ARC Raiders’ Steam Numbers Are Going to Be Hard to Beat
- Players active right now — 124.095
- All-time player peak — 481, 966
ARC Raiders‘ player numbers may have dropped since its peak, but this is normal. Since the game’s launch, ARC Raiders has managed to maintain a consistent audience, and that’s ultimately the most important thing. A massive peak doesn’t mean anything if the game can’t convince players to come back over and over again.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
An unfortunate example of this just recently happened, too. Hero-shooter Highguard is shutting down, despite launching at the end of January. The game’s all-time peak was almost 100,000 players when it launched, but it quickly took a downturn. The game will officially end on March 12. Right now, Highguard has around 350 players active. Retaining players is one of the hardest parts of building a live-service game, but Embark Studios has been incredibly successful with ARC Raiders so far. Games like ARC Raiders and Helldivers 2 have taken unique approaches to the live-service model, and it has helped them stand out and stay interesting.
Marathon May Not Be Pulling in ARC Raiders Numbers, But It’s Off to a Solid Start
- Players active right now — 46,179
- All-time player peak — 88,337
This is a humbler player count compared to ARC Raiders, but it definitely isn’t bad. Also, this is just Steam players. There’s a real possibility that ARC Raiders could end up cornering more of the PC audience, while Marathon takes the console market. It’s really too early to say, but Marathon‘s Steam numbers are nothing to scoff at. The Server Slam had a peak of 143,621, so Marathon lost nearly half of those participants at launch (though this is actually impressive seeing as many of these players were likely only trying it because it was free to do so). There is still plenty of time to bounce back, too. Also, it’s already been confirmed that Bungie is making changes to Marathon after Server Slam feedback, with one of the biggest complaints being Marathon‘s UI design. Once these updates are made, it’s very possible that more players will join in on the fun. Again, though, while ARC Raiders has the advantage by quite a bit on Steam, Marathon‘s PC numbers are still very solid.
Marathon and ARC Raiders Are in Two Very Different Stages Right Now
Marathon has been out for around 24 hours at this point, and ARC Raiders has been out for months. The latter may have started off strong, but not every game’s success story is the same. Marathon could very well be a diamond in the rough that starts to be an even bigger competitor for ARC Raiders as Bungie tweaks and improves it. Also, both extraction shooters are incredibly different, so there’s room for fans of the genre to enjoy both. As the year continues, it’s going to be fascinating to see how the Marathon vs. ARC Raiders discourse continues to unfold. Since they feel worlds apart, they will likely cultivate their own specific audiences over time, though there will surely be a good bit of overlap and a back and forth battle for a chunk of the extraction shooter player base.
- 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
