Marathon‘s development budget exceeded $200 million, and likely even more, according to one recent analysis. After a long and troubled development cycle, Bungie’s extraction shooter finally made it into the world a little over a month ago. So far, things have been good, but not great, which may be a bit frustrating for Bungie considering Marathon‘s massive budget.
It’s no secret that the Sony-owned studio had its fair share of challenges in making its latest game. After early playtests were largely negative, Bungie delayed Marathon indefinitely, ultimately pushing the release back more than five months to get the game closer to player expectations. There was also an AI art scandal and reports of plummeting morale to contend with, but Marathon would eventually see the light of day and launch to positive reviews, though getting to that point wasn’t cheap.
Marathon Reportedly ‘Hasn’t Exactly Made the Splash’ Sony Wanted
A market analyst reports that Marathon has not been as much of a hit as Sony had hoped, especially among the PlayStation 5 community.
Marathon’s Budget is “Likely” More than $250 Million
According to Forbes’ Paul Tassi, Marathon cost over $200 million to develop, and that the full figure is “likely higher” than $250 million. It’s unclear if this covers all spending or just development, but if it’s the latter, it plants Marathon firmly within the top 10 most expensive games ever made in terms of pure dev costs. Adding marketing into the mix muddies the waters a bit, but $200 million-plus is an eye-watering budget regardless, and Tassi says that does not include any post-release work. Ongoing updates and new content fall outside that total, so Marathon‘s lifetime expenses could reach truly staggering heights as time goes on as Bungie continues to update the game.
Tassi doesn’t specify if this $200 to $250 million figure was the plan for the start or if that’s what the budget became after Marathon‘s delayed release. In either case, it may be all the more surprising in light of how Bungie ultimately decided to charge just $40 for the base game instead of the $70 that has become standard among AAA developers. On the other hand, a lower price point has likely helped sales, especially when competing against similarly priced competition from ARC Raiders. It’s also worth noting that Marathon also has some controversial microtransactions, which, while unpopular, create another revenue stream to help recover from the game’s behemoth dev costs.
The Forbes report also touched on Marathon‘s performance in its first month after release. While there have been some positive takeaways, like solid reviews and 22% of Steam players logging 50-plus hours in the game, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. As previously reported, Marathon has lost 59% of its player count on Steam, which may sting all the more considering PC is by far the shooter’s biggest platform, accounting for 70% of Marathon‘s player base. The release of Cryo Archive map also did little to lift these numbers, only producing a slight uptick in active users compared to the usual weekend bump.
Marathon also did not make it into Steam’s top 10 most-played games at launch, although it was facing stiff competition. Not all is lost for the game, though. While its player counts may not be as high as Bungie may have wanted, it seems that there is a dedicated group of fans who keep coming back to it after getting over the initial learning curve. Bungie has also said it’s committed to Marathon “for the long haul,” promising multiple years of ongoing improvements. If it succeeds in that goal, it could make up for the game’s massive budget. If nothing else, Marathon is still standing a month down the line, so it has beaten all Concord allegations.
- 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
Source: Forbes
