Marathon developer Bungie revealed that at the start of the game’s content seasons, player progress will be wiped. Bungie, the developer behind Destiny and the original Halo games, looks to bring the tight gunplay and mobility it’s known for to the live-service, extraction shooter genre. Arc Raiders is probably Marathon‘s greatest competition, which features optional progress wipes. It’ll be interesting to see how players respond to Bungie’s forced progress wipes when the game releases.
The stylish Marathon will be available on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S beginning on March 5. Marathon just finished its server slam, which ran from February 26 to March 2. According to SteamDB, the game peaked at 143,621 concurrent players on Steam when the server slam kicked off. Going by just player engagement, the server slam seems to have been a success. While players didn’t get access to the entire game, it did give them a feel of what to expect once the extraction shooter releases later this week. The consensus seems to be mostly positive, with a few kinks Bungie might need to work out. Some players have reported being put off by a steep learning curve, confusing menus, and sparse player-versus-player encounters.
When Will Marathon Come Out? (Global Release Times)
The global release timings for Marathon are out. Check out when the game will be dropping in your region.
Bungie Offers a Closer Look at Marathon’s Post-Launch Content
Bungie offered players a deeper look into Marathon‘s post-launch content via an article the developer posted on Twitter. Marathon‘s season will last roughly three months and introduce fresh content, including new Runner shells, gear, zones, and events. More importantly, the developer revealed that with each new season, player progress will be wiped, meaning everyone will have to start over from level 1 once the new content becomes available. That means grinding faction reputation, contracts, kits, and everything else each time a season starts up. However, Bungie did say that players wouldn’t have to unlock the factions again when a season starts. Cosmetics, milestone rewards, and Codex progression will also carry over. The developer also said there could be other forms of progression that carry over, but it didn’t provide specifics.
“Each season of Marathon brings a clean slate for the whole community with progression resets. These resets include everyone’s gear, contract progression, faction progression, and player level,” Bungie wrote in the post.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
Along with the content wipe, Bungie also shared more details about Marathon‘s first season, titled DEATH IS THE FIRST STEP. The season will pit factions against each other as they seek out what happened to the original 30,000 members of the lost New Cascadia Colony. Players will unlock a new end-game zone called Cryo Archive that features puzzles and potentially a major PvE boss. Later in March, Ranked mode will become available, which presumably features better gear and stronger enemies. Bungie said to expect more details about Ranked mode closer to the game’s March 5 launch. The developer also offered a look ahead at Marathon‘s second season, called NIGHTFALL, which will introduce new gameplay systems and a nighttime survival mode, among other things. DEATH IS THE FIRST STEP begins March 5, so players should expect NIGHTFALL to land sometime in June.
While Marathon has surpassed Arc Raiders on the Steam Top Sellers chart, it still has some big shoes to fill. Luckily, it sounds like Bungie is aware of some of the stress points players are experiencing following the game’s recent server slam and plans to make adjustments. One of the biggest gripes players have experienced is with the game’s UI, which can be confusing to navigate. There are specific gameplay features that players have had some friction with, too. Namely, Marathon‘s heat generation system, which builds up over time and prevents player actions like sprinting and melee when it’s full. Bungie has indicated that it’s aware of player feedback and is looking at this system and others. As a live-service game, Bungie will likely include quality-of-life improvements over time following the game’s release.
The comparison with Arc Raiders is probably one that Marathon will have a difficult time outrunning. Arc Raiders has been a massive success and innovated on the extraction shooter genre. However, Marathon seems to have a bigger focus on PvP gameplay and less of a social aspect when compared to Embark Studio’s game. Most players seem to shoot first rather than use the game’s proximity chat feature. Marathon also won’t include aggression-based matchmaking like Arc Raiders uses. Only time will tell if Marathon‘s post-launch content and continued support will be enough to carve out a name for itself in the extraction shooter genre.
- 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
