According to a recent report, the majority of developers at Bungie are now working with Marathon instead of Destiny 2. While Marathon is a new project for Bungie and one that the team clearly wants to see succeed, these new details may not sit well with Destiny 2 player base.
Marathon isn't the start of a new franchise for Bungie, but it is a return to a classic that hadn't seen a new entry since 1996. The first-person extraction shooter has significant differences from Destiny 2so players who have enjoyed Destiny 2s PvE experiences may not necessarily be interested in Marathon. While the two games have been worked on simultaneously up until Marathonlaunch, Destiny 2 players have already expressed concerns that it could take away the focus from Bungie's older games. Now, it seems those fears may have some validity.
Marathon packs all the best Destiny 2 features with one of the worst
Marathon shares many great features and gameplay aspects with Destiny 2, but it also doesn't seem to cater to solo players.
Bungie puts more focus on marathon development over Destiny 2
Bungie sources speaking to Forbes have stated that Marathon have more developers working on it than Destiny 2. Although an exact number was not given, there are estimated to be around 800 developers working at Bungie, with the extraction shooter Marathon “edges out Destiny 2 little” in terms of how many people work on the title. Reports from a year ago indicated that there had been a 300/550 split, with the majority working on Destiny 2but that seems to have changed with the release of Marathon.
Fans of Destiny 2 does not take this news well, as it indicates that fewer resources are being put into the game in favor of Marathon. Players were already pissed when it was announced that the next big update for Destiny 2Shadow and Order, was delayed until June 2026. But more players are expressing disbelief that hundreds of team members are still working on Destiny 2 at Bungie, given the slowdown in updates. However, for a game that once had a thousand or more people working on it, it's understandable that development would take longer with a workforce that has been more than halved.
Unfortunately for Bungie, so far, its focus on Marathon haven't seen the kind of numbers the developer might have expected after the success of Fate franchise. Marathon started off pretty strong with a peak of over 88,000 players on Steam, but has steadily declined since then, with a peak of just 20,000 recorded on Friday, April 24th. Even its Steam release peak is far off Destiny 2 launched to nearly 300,000 players on the PC platform as early as 2019. Despite the slow updates and the advancing age of the game, Destiny 2 still manages to hold on to roughly half the player base that Marathon is currently going strong, with just over 10,000 concurrent players recorded on the same day as Marathonis 20,000.
It's still early days for Marathonso it's entirely possible that Bungie will see significant success with the extraction shooter as time goes on. If it ends up meaning that Destiny 2 is largely abandoned, but loyal Bungie fans may stop moving on entirely. If Destiny 2 can meet player expectations while Bungie focuses on Marathon will become clearer when Destiny 2: Shadow and Order release is approaching.
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teens/animated blood, language, violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
