This article was updated by Andrea Trama on 10 March 2026, with game developer reactions to Marathon's player number discourse and review bombings, including the new updated numbers. It was first published on March 7.
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 very strong feedback, which is promising. At the time of writing, the game's Steam reviews are “Very Positive,” and the pre-launch Server Slam helped create some much-needed positive hype. However, its main competitor continues to reign supreme.
Marathon is bombarded with reviews, with its Metacritic reviews after many players left a 0 score on the platform. Still, the game's player numbers on Steam have improved, which is a good sign considering this is a regular weekday.
ARC Raiders launched back in October, it introduced one of the most accessible extraction shooters to date. Before ARC Raidersthe genre was a more niche world, but Embark Studios' take on this game has attracted an impressive number of players. The Marathon against. ARC Raiders debate has the potential to become the extraction shooter genre's version of Call of Duty against. Battlefieldbut ARC Raiders is clearly in the lead, at least when it comes to Steam numbers.
Best PC Settings for Marathon (Optimization Guide)
Although Marathon is reasonably optimized on PC, players can improve its performance further by trying these best settings and achieve higher FPS.
ARC Raider's Steam numbers are going to be hard to beat
- Players who are currently active — 163,084
- 24-hour peak — 173,740
- All time top player — 481, 966
ARC RaidersThe number of players may have dropped since its peak, but this is normal. Since the game's launch, ARC Raiders have managed to maintain a consistent audience, and that's ultimately the most important thing. A massive top means nothing if the game can't convince players to come back again and again.
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Start
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Light (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
An unfortunate example of this happened recently as well. Hero shooter Highguard is closed, despite launching at the end of January. The game's all-time peak was nearly 100,000 players when it launched, but that quickly took a downturn. The game officially ends on March 12. right now, Highguard has around 350 players active. Player retention 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 that 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 who are currently active — 51,208
- 24-hour peak — 66,593
- All time top player — 88,337
This is a more modest number of players compared to ARC Raidersbut it's definitely not bad. Also, this is Steam players only. There is a real possibility ARC Raiders could corner more of the PC crowd, at the same time Marathon takes the console market. It's really too early to tell, though Marathons Steam numbers are nothing to scoff at. Server Slam peaked at 143,621, so Marathon lost almost half of its participants at launch (although this is actually impressive, as many of these players likely only tried it because it was free to do so).
There's still plenty of time to bounce back, too. Additionally, it has already been confirmed that Bungie is making changes to the Marathon after Server Slam feedback, with one of the biggest complaints Marathons UI design. Once these updates are made, more players can join in on the fun. But again, while ARC Raiders has a pretty big advantage on Steam, Marathons PC numbers are still very stable.
Marathon and ARC Raiders are in two very different stages right now
Marathon been out for a few days at this point, and ARC Raiders been out for months. The latter may have started strong, but not every game's success story is the same. Marathon may well be a diamond in the rough that is starting to become an even bigger competitor to ARC Raiders as Bungie tweaks and improves it. Also, both extraction games are incredibly different, so there is room for fans of the genre to enjoy both. As the year continues, it will be fascinating to see how Marathon against. ARC Raiders the discourse continues to evolve. Since they feel worlds apart, they'll likely cultivate their own specific audiences over time, though there's sure to be a good bit of overlap and a back-and-forth battle for a piece of the extraction shooter's player base.
- Released
-
March 5, 2026
- ESRB
-
Teen/animated blood, language, violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
