• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Marathon releases to 87,000 players on Steam and 87% Positive Reviews (sponsored by coachmcguirk91)

I agree that we'll get the first hints of its stating power in a couple of months. So we can put off calling it dead for another 6 -10 weeks? lol?
Nope. Because this is not just about the game.
Think About It GIF by Identity
 
Seems to be holding pretty well although at a baseline lower than they would have hoped I think. Probably enough to keep them making content and working on the game I would think. Any word from Sony about PlayStation numbers?
 
That has nothing to with retention of the past few days. Most Steam games retain around 75% of their player base from weekend peaks to weekday. Marathon is over performing that. If player retention was poor for Marathon, it would be much lower than the average
I mean, if you mean it's overperforming in it's underperformance, then I absolutely agree!

jim-carrey-salute.gif
 
Marathon from what I see it seems like extraction in itself, is the end game... Get some better guns to kill maybe quicker or more efficiently perhaps. But to me I would still think that in itself would flat line but thats just me
It's the same. Get better gear for harder runs. So far outpost is much harder than the first 2 maps, and Cryo Archive will be much harder than outpost.
 
Some of the take in this thread are absolutely WILD.

We need a clown emoji.

That has nothing to with retention of the past few days. Most Steam games retain around 75% of their player base from weekend peaks to weekday. Marathon is over performing that. If player retention was poor for Marathon, it would be much lower than the average
happy ronald mcdonald GIF by McDonald's CZ/SK
 
That has nothing to with retention of the past few days. Most Steam games retain around 75% of their player base from weekend peaks to weekday. Marathon is over performing that. If player retention was poor for Marathon, it would be much lower than the average
Wow, that's very impressive that with two extraction shooters launching simultaneously, Marathon's CCU didn't crater!

Wait a minute...
 
Comes out this week.


I think a lot of you have a pretty fucked up perspective.

at 58k CCU on Steam, this is the 16th most played game on Steam right now. In the world. Tell me again how that's a bad thing?

Also, tell me which one of the 15 games above it you're putting dozens of hours into right now.
fM1WAuN3A3PSw5JK.png
That's like asking how is it bad for the team with the highest total salaries that was projected to win the championship to only make the playoffs by a hair lol.
 
Last edited:
Marathon will finish tonight with 80-85% of its peak weekend numbers on Steam. Arc Raiders peaked earlier today, and retained 75% of their peak weekend numbers on Steam. Marathon is showing great retention
Marathon is slowing down.

ARC rose after launch day peaking by the second weekend, and then almost reached the peak again 2 months later. The game came out 3 months ago and doing almost triple Marathon.

And ARC came from a studio who only made The Finals before. Bungie is a well known studio who made Halo and Destiny.

raJPuOjpRvxWQfmO.jpg
 
Last edited:
Marathon is slowing down.

ARC rose after launch day peaking by the second weekend, and then almost reached the peak again 2 months later. The game came out 3 months ago and doing almost triple Marathon.

And ARC came from a studio who only made The Finals before. Bungie is a well known studio who made Halo and Destiny.

raJPuOjpRvxWQfmO.jpg
Nobody is comparing the success of Arc to Marathon. All I am saying is Marathon held well today compared to their weekend numbers. It is still top 5 on Steam 5 days later
 
Last edited:
Nobody is comparing the success of Arc to Marathon. All I am saying is Marathon held well today compared to their weekend numbers. It is still top 5 on Steam 5 days later
Youre the one who compared against ARC. Marathon is not top 5 on Steam either. Pending the hour of the day, it ranges from about 15 to 30 in CCU.
 
Youre the one who compared against ARC. Marathon is not top 5 on Steam either. Pending the hour of the day, it ranges from about 15 to 30 in CCU.
I was just using Arc as an example. Pretty much all GAAS games lose 25% of its audience vs their weekend peaks. Marathon held 85% today of their weekend peaks. I meant top 5 selling, fyi
 
Posting this as just by luck it's a nice number. Exactly 50,000. And last night midnight it was 60,000. What are the chances!

But comparing equal time slots, midnight tonight vs midnight last night was 56k vs 60k.

gOoGqbfFIw9stFhQ.jpg
 
Seems to be holding pretty well although at a baseline lower than they would have hoped I think. Probably enough to keep them making content and working on the game I would think. Any word from Sony about PlayStation numbers?
It was #18 on launch day. It's been bumped up to #7 on the US store sorted by best selling. It's inbetween Madden 26 and Rainbow Siege.
 
ARC is a huge hit. The fact that Marathon can even be compared to it shows that Marathon isn't actually that bad.
The irony is that people are saying that, in order for Marathon to have legs, it needs to embrace aspects of Arc Raiders. The discourse around how these two games handle PvPvE is what sets them apart.

There is no real way to compare them outside of the fact that they belong to the same genre, which is mostly useless when it's clear they were designed with two different priorities.... It's just that some people and the media (for some reason) want to turn these games again each other.

Marathon is way more focused on its gameplay (competitive shooter) while Arc is more expansive, adventure like.

So, Marathon is not good in relation to Arc. But is it good in relation to another competitive FPS?... I think even the director was talking about e-sport in relation to Marathon's PvP gameplay.

Bungie probably bet on the wrong horse with Marathon's core design, at least if the goal was to make something mainstream. If the idea was to create something niche with fewer than 100 developers supporting it while the rest continued working on Destiny, then maybe they nailed it. But of course, it now seems they may struggle with both projects anyway
 
Bungie probably bet on the wrong horse with Marathon's core design, at least if the goal was to make something mainstream. If the idea was to create something niche with fewer than 100 developers supporting it while the rest continued working on Destiny, then maybe they nailed it. But of course, it now seems they may struggle with both projects anyway
That's probably what they were betting on. I dont think any studio head would be dumb enough to think Marathon would be a huge Destiny seller. But it'd be a smaller scale game. But not this low. It's 24H peak is 66k ranking 25th for a brand new game from a big name studio. So it's already down 25% from 88k peak on day one in less than a week

It's 88k all time peak is currently 243rd best on Steam. So unless it picks up steam with content drops, this game will never even break 100k ever. But will slowly decline. Even weird games like RV There Yet, Raft, and Party Animals barely broke 100k.


At some point, what they'll do is F2P it. Not yet though. But if the player drops keep trending down they'll probably do it by the summer.
 
Last edited:
At some point, they'll do is F2P it. Not yet though. But if the player drops keep trending down they'll probably do it by the summe
I think Sony will kill it before that. The game is probably far more expensive than The Finals, for example, especially with its reliance on narrative and large community events... I think a 50% discount then 75% to try to attract players first
 
Yesterday it did a great job particularly in America, normally in working days games have way lower active userbase than during the weekends. The game seems it's going to have very good retention.

image.png


At some point, what they'll do is F2P it.
I don't think so, they'd need to change a lot of things of the game's monetization, in-game economy, progression and to add a lot of purchasable items, gatcha etc.

The game isn't ready for it at all, they'd need to redesign half of it and implement a lot of stuff.

As of now the store has mainly overexpensive character skins, but most characters aren't the usual visually good looking badass chads and hot chicks players would buy costumes for them. Particularly when skins feel like almost efortless color swap. They need to make more visually appealing characters and skins.

Regarding the post game purchase monetization, I think as of now people will pay for the battle passes because they have a good chunk of things and variety, but I think the paid skins won't be successful unless they do something about them.
 
Last edited:
It's all about expectations, companies (share holders) these days want the fucking world and even mild success isn't enough. Layoffs, closures either way. They just want their golden goose , the next fornite or roblox or counter strike. It's not that fucking easy man.

Meanwhile you have ancient MMORPG games like Everquest 1, Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, DC Universe online, Lord of the Ring are still surviving and supposedly making profits, still getting DLC. The greed is wild to me.
 
So it's now hit it's lowest amount yet and it's peak over 24hrs is at its lowest so far. So basically in less than a week it's down over 20,000 players. Bungie need to do something fast to turn this around, I have no idea what could be done short-term though.
 
So it's now hit it's lowest amount yet and it's peak over 24hrs is at its lowest so far. So basically in less than a week it's down over 20,000 players. Bungie need to do something fast to turn this around, I have no idea what could be done short-term though.
It'e been out for 4 days.
Yes, and that drop from the first weekend is normal and is in the ballpark of most top GaaS. A few examples:

Destiny 2 launched in Steam Wednesday, first week peak was Sunday with 292.5K. So first weekend on Steam peaked at 292.5K, decreasing first Monday did 216.1K (-26.1% drop).

Escape from Tarkov
released on Steam a Saturday with 23.5K, first weekend on Steam peaked Sunday (first week peak too) at 47.8K, first Monday peaked at 38.6K (-19.2%).

Delta Force released a Wednesday with 10.3K, peaked the first weekend (and week) at 118.9K and the first Monday did 98.9K (-16.8% drop).

Marathon launched Thursday with 86.7K, first week peak was Friday with 88.3K. Peaked during first weekend at 78.5K decreasing first Monday to 66.6K (-15.1% drop).

Overwatch released on Steam a Thursday with 40.1K, peaked its first week on Friday at 75.6K, during weekend peaked Saturday at 71.4K and its first Monday at 61.9K (-13.3% drop).

Path of Exile released a Tuesday with 13.3K, peaked its first weekend (and week) the Saturday at 34.5K and its first Monday went down to 29.9K (-13.3% drop).


Exceptional ultra rare cases:

Apex Legends debuted a Thursday with 88.9K, peaked the first weekend on Sunday at 116.7K and the first Monday went to 105.2K (-9.9% drop).

Arc Raiders debuted a Thursday with 264.7K, peaked its first weekend on Sunday at 354.8K, first Monday decreased to 322.1K (-9.2% drop).

Marvel Rivals released a Friday with 444.3K, peaked its first weekend at 481K, the first Monday went down to 452K (-6% drop).

Helldivers 2 released a Thursday with 64.2K, peaked its first weekend on Sunday at 155.9K, first Monday went down to 154.2K (-1% drop).

Random recent example of a 'short' non-GaaS top performance AAA game, games typically less focused on retention:

RE Requiem released a Friday with 320.1K, on its first weekend (and week) peaked that Saturday at 334K and the first Monday went down to a 215K peak (-35.6% drop).

So it's now hit it's lowest amount yet and it's peak over 24hrs is at its lowest so far. So basically in less than a week it's down over 20,000 players. Bungie need to do something fast to turn this around, I have no idea what could be done short-term though.
That doesn't mean a shit, as seen above so far the retention and the drop from weekend to Monday seems to be in the ballpark of most top GaaS in Steam.

It's worth mentioning the game is in more PC stores and that Bungie traditionally has most of their userbase on console, so Steam only represents a portion of the big picture.

Unless they had too unrealistic expectations, they will be more than fine.
 
Last edited:
An almost identical opening performance to Veilguard so far I believe, except Veilguard ticked up over its first weekend whereas this has ticked down from the start.
 
Does the game has an in-game shop / season pass / battle pass?
Yes, a $10 premium (there's a free one too) battlepass that doesn't expire when the next one gets released (like in Helldivers 2), and basically some $15 character skins+a few extras.

All cosmetics (character skins, weapon skins, weapon charms): no pay2win, no FOMO, no paid lootboxes/gatcha, no aggresive monetization tactics.
 
Last edited:
Friendly reminder that yurinka yurinka is the same poster who kept saying Wilds wasn't struggling with player retention and performing badly when the CEO of Capcom himself said it was performing below expectations after a thunderous launch.

He also keeps denying Sony isn't changing their PC strategy when multiple credible sources tell us that they are, and just repeats the same shit ad nauseam.

In short, don't listen to this guy. It's like talking to a broken AI.
 
Last edited:
Yesterday it did a great job particularly in America, normally in working days games have way lower active userbase than during the weekends. The game seems it's going to have very good retention.

Marathon could be a slow burner or crash and burn. Steam buyers seem to love Marathon, so there's that.


10.jpg



The more Sony GaaS fail hard, the better the chances Sony refocuses on single player.

Inversely, if the Sony GaaS were successful, nearly all Sony studios would start making GaaS (see Guérilla; Bluepoint, Bend, ND pre Factions fail, etc..)

Its as simple as that, nothing personal

Live service games could extend G&NS profit growth beyond the traditional console cycle, boost Sony Group profits, and bolster Totoki's position.

If their new live service games fail, Sony's G&NS profits will decline in 2027 and Totoki will be in trouble, given the financial performance of the rest of Sony Group.

G&NS will reduce its invested capital and R&D expenditures and close more studios, leading to fewer single-player games.


One thing I am happy about with this is that, it has become so clear to me Jim Ryan was fired for this live service push, including buying Bungie. Just need Hermen also gone too.

LMAO, please.

-80% market share in the West
-First-party revenue CAGR 18%
-More profits in 5 years than in the previous 25
-Average ROIC 21%
-G&NS generates roughly two-thirds of Sony's free cash flow
-Jim Ryan's SVPs were promoted with a raise (Lin Tao, Nishino, Hermen)
 
Im reading about marathon having "good retention" then i check numbers just to make sure, and i see its 66k peak on 5th day(vs first day 88k) aka loss of 25% already small playerbase :messenger_astonished:
Thats like being 5'2 man at 18yo and already by 19yo 3feet 11inches aka - 25% of ur height lost while u are still young buck and barely made it into adulthood, u are deep into the dwarf cathegory already bro, dat retention is non existent :D

Compared to destiny's 2 numbers, that game started not as a tallest guy in the world but well above avg chad, aka 6'6 (316k alltime peak ccu) and got to 61k ccu only after over 3years being on the market so a senior citizen, in his 60s, thats way different :P

Today is 6th day of marathon and game is going down even at 22k ccu lowest, so even assuming it wont go lower its -29% day1 vs day6 lowest ccu peak.:messenger_ok:
 
Friendly reminder that yurinka yurinka is the same poster who kept saying Wilds wasn't struggling with player retention and performing badly when the CEO of Capcom himself said it was performing below expectations after a thunderous launch.

He also keeps denying Sony isn't changing their PC strategy when multiple credible sources tell us that they are, and just repeats the same shit ad nauseam.

In short, don't listen to this guy. It's like talking to a broken AI.
Yeah you could say he's GAF's... Resident.... GaaS-lighter.
See Ya Goodbye GIF by shadyverse
 
Tried it again last night but refunded.

It's frustrating as there's so much good stuff there. But the fundamental problem is that I hate, hate, *hate* extraction shooters.

An obnoxious game mode.
 
Im reading about marathon having "good retention" then i check numbers just to make sure, and i see its 66k peak on 5th day(vs first day 88k) aka loss of 25% already small playerbase :messenger_astonished:
Thats like being 5'2 man at 18yo and already by 19yo 3feet 11inches aka - 25% of ur height lost while u are still young buck and barely made it into adulthood, u are deep into the dwarf cathegory already bro, dat retention is non existent :D

Compared to destiny's 2 numbers, that game started not as a tallest guy in the world but well above avg chad, aka 6'6 (316k alltime peak ccu) and got to 61k ccu only after over 3years being on the market so a senior citizen, in his 60s, thats way different :P

Today is 6th day of marathon and game is going down even at 22k ccu lowest, so even assuming it wont go lower its -29% day1 vs day6 lowest ccu peak.:messenger_ok:
Expected. We said that from the start the game is dead. I'm just sorry for the people who bought it when it was clearly going to go F2P soon.
 
Tried it again last night but refunded.

It's frustrating as there's so much good stuff there. But the fundamental problem is that I hate, hate, *hate* extraction shooters.

An obnoxious game mode.
Nah dude don't fret, if I was a betting man and I believe me I am... You aren't missing much and the fact these numbers are so low most would agree. Extraction to me while I get it has its fans, is not a good video game mode for most people, it just isn't. It has its few games that lucked out but gaming as a whole I'm sure extraction if you compared its fanbase to all the other genres is just miniscule.
 
Tried it again last night but refunded.

It's frustrating as there's so much good stuff there. But the fundamental problem is that I hate, hate, *hate* extraction shooters.

An obnoxious game mode.
I tried Tekken 8 the other day, really good game but the fundamental problem is that I absolutely despise fighting games.

*proceeds to get caught up in negative energy and review bomb the game on metacritic*

What the actual fuck lmao
 
Nah dude don't fret, if I was a betting man and I believe me I am... You aren't missing much and the fact these numbers are so low most would agree. Extraction to me while I get it has its fans, is not a good video game mode for most people, it just isn't. It has its few games that lucked out but gaming as a whole I'm sure extraction if you compared its fanbase to all the other genres is just miniscule.
Yup it wasnt that long when for example soulsborne games were novelty and superniche- og demons souls for ps3 from 2009 only sold 1m copies by 2011, and we- ppl who loved that genre totally understood its super niche/elitist and "git gut" aproach.
We didnt claim its mainstream, i would even argue many of us prefered it to stay somewhat niche even tho bloodborne from 2015(ps4 exclusive obviously) already sold 9,3m copies which many blockbuster AAA games this gen would kill for(to not look far ubisofts AC:Shadows and SW:Outlaws together didnt even sell that despite their crazy budget and long devtime+ being multiplats even including switch2 versions).

Ofc now u got elden ring with its 30m+ sold copies(+w/e expacks did) so cant claim niche anymore xD
 
Marathon :
Day 1: 88,337
Day 2: 78,498 (-9,839) (-11.14%)
Day 3: 75,133 (-3,365) (-4.29%)
Day 4: 77,371 (+2,238) (+2.98%)
Day 5: 66,593 (-10,778) (-13.93%)
Trend vs Day 1: -21,744 (-24.61%)


ARC Raiders :
Day 1: 264,673
Day 2: 253,486 (-11,187) (-4.23%)
Day 3: 328,434 (+74,948) (+29.57%)
Day 4: 354,836 (+26,402) (+8.04%)
Day 5: 322,135 (-32,701) (-9.21%)
Trend vs Day 1: +57,462 (+21.71%)
 
Top Bottom