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

You should give GTFO a try (no that's not an insult lol but the actual name of the game).

Witchfire shares many elements of the genre as well but is entirely singleplayer and also playable offline. Actually one of the best games of recent years tbh.

Did not know Witchfire was extraction like that. Looked more rougelike. Definitely on my wishlist.
 
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I seriously can't believe some people are trying to tell me "extraction" is the next big thing in gaming. It should be a mode in a real game. I could see this being a mode in like Halo Reach or something.

Hell it was a mode in Division. Division had extraction zones but also had a full story, an open map for exploring, etc. But someone people have convinced themselves that no, this is the entire game.

You literally run around in circles and collect garbage. Have our standards really sunk this low?

Late to the response but this mimics my thoughts exactly. I liked The Division's Dark Zones because they: a) weren't the entire game, b) gave me an alternate game mode to play other than pure pve, and c) the extraction actually mattered outside of the Dark Zone.

Some of the gear you could get in the Dark Zone was best in class for harder PvE encounters, so risking your ass in the extraction zones had real rewards that went beyond the DZ itself. If the rewards in the DZ only mattered IN the DZ, I wouldn't have bothered. If the entire game had been one big DZ, I wouldn't have even bought it.

Extraction is, at best, a single mode in a larger package. If they had added an extraction mode in Destiny, that probably would have been better than dedicating a single, entire, game to the mode.
 
The CCUs in this thread have plateaued, but I still think it will have longevity.

Shitposting and trollery have found a base, and you really don't need that many users to sustain them.
 
Oh, baby is mad.
I'm tired of the defense force playing the victim, you're losing your shit because that ruined your little fantasy? Cry more.
Yes, you seem to be mad and the one crying because some people in the internet shows numbers of a game that aren't as bad as you'd want them to be.

I was genuinely telling you to wait and see for the numbers to prove you right or wrong but ok.
Meanwhile Marathon is already bleeding players, slipping out of top 50 and Bungie's 'star of the show' gunplay clearly isn't enough to stop the inevitable slide into irrelevance. 87% positive on launch hype doesn't mean shit when the servers feel empty and the extraction loop gets old fast.
As I said many times I think it's too early to take any conclusions, but we have the first Steam top grossing games weekly ranking after release and first full week + almost second weekend of user reviews and CCUs, which is at least something to get an early rough impression and -as I estimated before launch- isn't either a Concordian disaster or an Arc Raiders/Helldivers 2 top hit exception.

But seems to be on track to be a successful and profitable game (pretty likely with the game sales of the first 1 or 2 months plus the related addons revenue that these sales will make including after that point) with higher than average user retention (as I think I shown before).

And regarding the amount of CCUs it has now, Marathon now has a CCU last 24h peak (yesterday, second Saturday) that is better than (or similar to) to that same second Saturday of several of the biggest MP shooters Steam ever had:

PUBG: 75,682
ARK: 69,895
Marathon: 58,729
Overwatch 47,477
Halo MCC: 45,709 *
Tarkov: 41,287 *
Payday 2: 33,798
Left 4 Dead 2: 28,106
Rust: 13,953
Rainbow Six Siege: 10,044
Team Fortress 2: 18,842

Notice the difference with these two:
Highguard: 8,517
Concord: 151

* = This is for the Steam release, the game released earlier outside Steam

Some of these games weren't available at launch in other PC stores and console btw, which is the case of Marathon.

Games don't need to be the next Destiny 2 / Helldivers 2 / Arc Raiders to be very successful and profitable.
 
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Did the shills get tired of the OT?

There is so much to do in this game that they prefer to defend here in this thread rather than play the game they so love.

They don't play the game. They don't discuss the game in their own OT.

For the third time, in case they forgot, there is a OT that they can discuss all the wonderful things that this game have to offer. But they don't.
 
Oh I didn't get triggered. But it's clear as day that you did.
Nu-uh!!

For someone who loves marathon, your sure as hell are spending a lot of time here during its peak.
Is that so. Are you also keeping track of thread-retention time on my Gaf account as well? :messenger_fearful:

You CCU bois are wildin'! Stats on stats on stats. But I will let you guys get to it.

Oh here's fun stat btw: the top 25 most played games on Steam.
  1. Counter-Strike 2
  2. Dota 2
  3. PUBG: Battlegrounds
  4. Slay the Spire 2
  5. Apex Legends
  6. Rust
  7. FiveM
  8. Bongo Cat
  9. ARC Raiders
  10. Path of Exile
  11. Grand Theft Auto V
  12. War Thunder
  13. Marvel Rivals
  14. Stardew Valley
  15. Resident Evil Requiem
  16. Baldur's Gate 3
  17. EA Sports FC 26
  18. Team Fortress 2
  19. DayZ
  20. Wallpaper Engine
  21. Dead by Daylight
  22. Helldivers 2
  23. Battlefield 6
  24. Warframe
  25. Terraria

So while you rage against the machine audiences lap up every live service they get served. It's going to be an exhausting few years ahead of you.

But I will go back to some more Marathon for now, go down with the ship and all that - whenever that might be, Concord 3 after all. Feel free to @ me when that does happen to say "I told you so". Gotta score those brownie points after all. :messenger_weary:
 
Current CCU 59k. Based on trends it should rise a bit more for the next few hours and then level off rest of night. So maybe that Twitch streamer tournament they promoted worked a bit. This game has an odd Europe skew on weekends, but a USA skew on weekdays. Every other game in the top played list has very consistent peaks and valleys at similar hours every day of the week.

Never the less, the 59k now matches the Friday peak.

The game might edge up to 65k. Who knows. But it definitely wont match last weekend's 77-78k peak. Apples to apples comparing weekends it'll probably be about a -15%-ish. But we'll have to see how today finishes.

Last week, the peak CCU immediately dropped 10k from Sunday to Monday to 66k.
 
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Nu-uh!!


Is that so. Are you also keeping track of thread-retention time on my Gaf account as well? :messenger_fearful:

You CCU bois are wildin'! Stats on stats on stats. But I will let you guys get to it.

Oh here's fun stat btw: the top 25 most played games on Steam.
  1. Counter-Strike 2
  2. Dota 2
  3. PUBG: Battlegrounds
  4. Slay the Spire 2
  5. Apex Legends
  6. Rust
  7. FiveM
  8. Bongo Cat
  9. ARC Raiders
  10. Path of Exile
  11. Grand Theft Auto V
  12. War Thunder
  13. Marvel Rivals
  14. Stardew Valley
  15. Resident Evil Requiem
  16. Baldur's Gate 3
  17. EA Sports FC 26
  18. Team Fortress 2
  19. DayZ
  20. Wallpaper Engine
  21. Dead by Daylight
  22. Helldivers 2
  23. Battlefield 6
  24. Warframe
  25. Terraria

So while you rage against the machine audiences lap up every live service they get served. It's going to be an exhausting few years ahead of you.

But I will go back to some more Marathon for now, go down with the ship and all that - whenever that might be, Concord 3 after all. Feel free to @ me when that does happen to say "I told you so". Gotta score those brownie points after all. :messenger_weary:
Ctrl+F+"marathon"

Ooph. You played yourself.
 
Yes, you seem to be mad and the one crying because some people in the internet shows numbers of a game that aren't as bad as you'd want them to be.



As I said many times I think it's too early to take any conclusions, but we have the first Steam top grossing games weekly ranking after release and first full week + almost second weekend of user reviews and CCUs, which is at least something to get an early rough impression and -as I estimated before launch- isn't either a Concordian disaster or an Arc Raiders/Helldivers 2 top hit exception.

But seems to be on track to be a successful and profitable game (pretty likely with the game sales of the first 1 or 2 months plus the related addons revenue that these sales will make including after that point) with higher than average user retention (as I think I shown before).

And regarding the amount of CCUs it has now, Marathon now has a CCU last 24h peak (yesterday, second Saturday) that is better than (or similar to) to that same second Saturday of several of the biggest MP shooters Steam ever had:

PUBG: 75,682
ARK: 69,895
Marathon: 58,729
Overwatch 47,477
Halo MCC: 45,709 *
Tarkov: 41,287 *
Payday 2: 33,798
Left 4 Dead 2: 28,106
Rust: 13,953
Rainbow Six Siege: 10,044
Team Fortress 2: 18,842

Notice the difference with these two:
Highguard: 8,517
Concord: 151

* = This is for the Steam release, the game released earlier outside Steam

Some of these games weren't available at launch in other PC stores and console btw, which is the case of Marathon.

Games don't need to be the next Destiny 2 / Helldivers 2 / Arc Raiders to be very successful and profitable.
And out of those games you listed, how many after a week and a half, had it's peak CCU drop about -30%. Marathon started at a 88k peak and right now is about 60k as I type. It never came close to the launch day 88k peak.

And weekend over weekend, Marathon will probably end up about -15%. That assumes it goes up a bit more today vs last weekend at 77-78k. How many of those games you listed dropped 15% from launch weekend?

The game even has a Twitch streamer promo going on this weekend and the peak CCU right now is about the same as Friday. Every other top played game on Steam list had a weekend CCU that beat Friday no problem except Bongo Cat and Marvel Rivals.

Some games like RE9 were +30% vs Friday peak.
 
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Yes, you seem to be mad and the one crying because some people in the internet shows numbers of a game that aren't as bad as you'd want them to be.
Meanwhile in the real world, I already said that I was expecting the game to do at least 150K:


How can I be mad when it's doing worse than what I was expecting :messenger_tears_of_joy:

As I said many times I think it's too early to take any conclusions
Is it? Do you really think Sony/Bungie went like "ok it's gonna launch with bad numbers but no worries, it's gonna grow". That's some massive copium.
Also we already see it's not growing btw.

but we have the first Steam top grossing games weekly ranking after release and first full week + almost second weekend of user reviews and CCUs, which is at least something to get an early rough impression and -as I estimated before launch- isn't either a Concordian disaster or an Arc Raiders/Helldivers 2 top hit exception.
I don' care about Concord and I don't know why you keep mentioning it, I've never talked about it in this thread.

But seems to be on track to be a successful and profitable game (pretty likely with the game sales of the first 1 or 2 months plus the related addons revenue that these sales will make including after that point) with higher than average user retention (as I think I shown before).

And regarding the amount of CCUs it has now, Marathon now has a CCU last 24h peak (yesterday, second Saturday) that is better than (or similar to) to that same second Saturday of several of the biggest MP shooters Steam ever had:

PUBG: 75,682
ARK: 69,895
Marathon: 58,729
Overwatch 47,477
Halo MCC: 45,709 *
Tarkov: 41,287 *
Payday 2: 33,798
Left 4 Dead 2: 28,106
Rust: 13,953
Rainbow Six Siege: 10,044
Team Fortress 2: 18,842

Notice the difference with these two:
Highguard: 8,517
Concord: 151

* = This is for the Steam release, the game released earlier outside Steam

Some of these games weren't available at launch in other PC stores and console btw, which is the case of Marathon.

Games don't need to be the next Destiny 2 / Helldivers 2 / Arc Raiders to be very successful and profitable.
Projecting hard, huh? You're the one writing essays to defend mediocre numbers and calling people mad for pointing out reality.

But let's be real for a second, your cherry-picked 'second saturday' list is cute, but meaningless. PUBG, ARK, Overwatch etc all had massive early explosions (many free-to-play or with huge pre-existing audiences). Marathon is a $40 paid extraction shooter from Bungie with sky high expectations.

And Marathon is already bleeding out: 88k launch peak then crashed to 28-32k mid-week, slipped out of top 50 and now clinging to a weekend 58k bump that's already fading. You call this higher than average retention and on track for successful and profitable?? WTH?? That's pure cope.

You keep moving the goalpost from ''no conclusions yet'' to ''actually it's doing great''.
Meanwhile the data shows exactly what I said: Bungie cooked a shooter that nobody wants to play long term. Cry all you want, facts don't care about your fantasy.

Finally, those 87% ''Very Positive'' reviews you love so much? Pure self-selection bias.
The massive free Server Slam (143k peak) let everyone try it. Only the people who already loved the gunplay and loop dropped $40 and bothered to review. The ones who found it mid or frustrating simply didn't buy so Steam is flooded with preconvinced Bungie fans in full honeymoon mode. That's why the score looks inflated right now. Doesn't mean shit long-term when the extraction loop gets stale and players ghost.
 
Finally, those 87% ''Very Positive'' reviews you love so much? Pure self-selection bias.
The massive free Server Slam (143k peak) let everyone try it. Only the people who already loved the gunplay and loop dropped $40 and bothered to review. The ones who found it mid or frustrating simply didn't buy so Steam is flooded with preconvinced Bungie fans in full honeymoon mode. That's why the score looks inflated right now. Doesn't mean shit long-term when the extraction loop gets stale and players ghost.

That's actually a really interesting concept. Given that Steam has a robust refund system, it allows people to buy a game, make a decision and refund it, and with that leave a negative review. Launching a demo as a different SKU gives people a chance to demo, but not leave a negative review. There's a risk of lost sales for those who buy and don't refund or play more than 4 hours, but there's been a lot of focus on Steam review scores, as much as there is CCU.

It's known that there have been bonuses tied to things like Metacritic scores, so there's precedent for a strong review score being important to gain.

I haven't put much thought into this, I'm just reacting to your post. But this whole Server Slam scenario and how those numbers: They ended at 55k CCU from some 145K, and we're eerily close to that 55K number now that launch week is over.

Maybe the idea wasn't intentional, but there's undoubtedly a cause and effect in play.
 
And out of those games you listed, how many after a week and a half, had it's peak CCU drop about -30%. Marathon started at a 88k peak and right now is about 60k as I type. It never came close to the launch day 88k peak.

And weekend over weekend, Marathon will probably end up about -15%. That assumes it goes up a bit more today vs last weekend at 77-78k. How many of those games you listed dropped 15% from launch weekend?
I already mentioned this in previous posts. Many top shooters/GaaS/MP games/games in general didn't had their all time CCU peak until the 3rd or 4th week, and other ones didn't have it until several years after launch.

And same goes with the CCU drop, Marathon is doing similar or better than many other top shooters/GaaS/games in general.

It's stupid to think a game is a failure because didn't perform as well as single specific top hit exception, particularly in a metric as irrelevant as CCU.

The game even has a Twitch streamer promo going on this weekend and the peak CCU right now is about the same as Friday.
Yes, basically alll AAA games pay top streamers to play their games. It's part of the basic marketing actions of any AAA game. And no, the related sales and CCUs aren't made while these games get streamed. They take time, often weeks (particularly if the streamer likes it and keeps streaming it).

Btw, today is performing better than several previous days, let's wait to see what the EU and NA peaks are for today, but could even end minimum as the CCU peak of the week.
 
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There is so much to do in this game that they prefer to defend here in this thread rather than play the game they so love.

They don't play the game. They don't discuss the game in their own OT.

For the third time, in case they forgot, there is a OT that they can discuss all the wonderful things that this game have to offer. But they don't.

Plenty of us are playing it

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Finally, those 87% ''Very Positive'' reviews you love so much? Pure self-selection bias.
The massive free Server Slam (143k peak) let everyone try it. Only the people who already loved the gunplay and loop dropped $40 and bothered to review. The ones who found it mid or frustrating simply didn't buy so Steam is flooded with preconvinced Bungie fans in full honeymoon mode. That's why the score looks inflated right now. Doesn't mean shit long-term when the extraction loop gets stale and players ghost.
Steam reviews mean absolutely nothing except whomever owns it like it or not. Nothing more. It has zero correlation with sales, CCU, retention or anything like that. A gamer who already doesnt like it wont buy to begin with.

At 86.73%, it's rated over 4,200th in highest reviews. Here's a list where it's ranked across other similar scored games including some weird games that even have a higher %.

To find Marathon, you got to filter it to the 5k filter! Also, the current Metacritic and OpenCritic scores are only at about 70-75. So a meh game.

If people are using Steam reviews as an indicator of good games, then Lair of the Clockwork God, Last Embryo and Quadrilateral Cowboy are better games since they got a higher Steam %.


ZBrYfjcKIaQvK5nS.jpg
 
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Steam reviews mean absolutely nothing except whomever owns it like it or not. Nothing more. It has zero correlation with sales, CCU, retention or anything like that. A gamer who already doesnt like it wont buy to begin with.

At 86.73%, it's rated over4,200th in highest reviews. Here's a list where it's ranked across other similar scored games including all the weird games that even have a higher %.

To find Marathon, you got to filter it to the 5k filter! Also, the current Metacritic and OpenCritic scores are only at about 70-75. So a meh game.


ZBrYfjcKIaQvK5nS.jpg

The 7.6 for Destiny did fine for it.
6 million sold first month, console only. And with its sequel has lasted longer than the initial 10 year plan. Having some of its best sales in 2024 10 years later
 
The 7.6 for Destiny did fine for it.
6 million sold first month, console only. And with its sequel has lasted longer than the initial 10 year plan. Having some of its best sales in 2024 10 years later
Yup. And PUBG has lousy Steam reviews as a whole but among the best sellers out there (even before it went F2P).
 
Steam reviews mean absolutely nothing except whomever owns it like it or not. Nothing more. It has zero correlation with sales, CCU, retention or anything like that. A gamer who already doesnt like it wont buy to begin with.

At 86.73%, it's rated over 4,200th in highest reviews. Here's a list where it's ranked across other similar scored games including some weird games that even have a higher %.

To find Marathon, you got to filter it to the 5k filter! Also, the current Metacritic and OpenCritic scores are only at about 70-75. So a meh game.

If people are using Steam reviews as an indicator of good games, then Lair of the Clockwork God, Last Embryo and Quadrilateral Cowboy are better games since they got a higher Steam %.


ZBrYfjcKIaQvK5nS.jpg
Reviews haven't hit there like 6, lol. One of your scored reviews are from the beta even.
 
That's actually a really interesting concept. Given that Steam has a robust refund system, it allows people to buy a game, make a decision and refund it, and with that leave a negative review. Launching a demo as a different SKU gives people a chance to demo, but not leave a negative review. There's a risk of lost sales for those who buy and don't refund or play more than 4 hours, but there's been a lot of focus on Steam review scores, as much as there is CCU.

It's known that there have been bonuses tied to things like Metacritic scores, so there's precedent for a strong review score being important to gain.

I haven't put much thought into this, I'm just reacting to your post. But this whole Server Slam scenario and how those numbers: They ended at 55k CCU from some 145K, and we're eerily close to that 55K number now that launch week is over.

Maybe the idea wasn't intentional, but there's undoubtedly a cause and effect in play.
Well, Marathon didn't invent open alphas/betas -particularly to do a stress server test before launch in case of MP/GaaS- or demos.
 
Reviews haven't hit there like 6, lol. One of your scored reviews are from the beta even.
And Opencritic has 18 reviews, a 76 score and only a 59% critic reco.

Lucky for Marathon lots of sites are holding off reviews till the content drop as per Bungie's reco, so the scores will be artificially inflated when they do their reviews with more content and any patches that come with the download.
 
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Well, Marathon didn't invent open alphas/betas -particularly to do a stress server test before launch in case of MP/GaaS- or demos.

That's multiple posts of mine you've replied to which have brought nothing to the table.

Makes for really good discussion. I'll head off now to have a long think about this great insight and how it changes humanities perspective of the universe.
 
Meanwhile in the real world, I already said that I was expecting the game to do at least 150K:
Yes, and can have a 150K. Several MP shooters had its peak on the 3rd or 4th week, or even years after launch.

Is it? Do you really think Sony/Bungie went like "ok it's gonna launch with bad numbers but no worries, it's gonna grow". That's some massive copium.
Also we already see it's not growing btw.
Projecting hard, huh? You're the one writing essays to defend mediocre numbers and calling people mad for pointing out reality.
Bad numbers according to you because of its CCUs, which as I shown are better than at the same moment many top performer MP shooters had at the same point. Which isn't mediocre at all.

But let's be real for a second, your cherry-picked 'second saturday' list is cute, but meaningless. PUBG, ARK, Overwatch etc all had massive early explosions (many free-to-play or with huge pre-existing audiences). Marathon is a $40 paid extraction shooter from Bungie with sky high expectations.
If you learn to read you'll see it's a list of games that performed similar or worse than Marathon regarcing CCUs at the same day Marathon is today (their second Saturday), which didn't stop them to become some of the most successful games in the genre.

Showcasing how stupid is to say that Marathon numbers are mediocre or a failure because didn't get better numbers than the some of the few top performing games ever in the genre.

And Marathon is already bleeding out: 88k launch peak then crashed to 28-32k mid-week, slipped out of top 50 and now clinging to a weekend 58k bump that's already fading. You call this higher than average retention and on track for successful and profitable?? WTH?? That's pure cope.

You keep moving the goalpost from ''no conclusions yet'' to ''actually it's doing great''.
Meanwhile the data shows exactly what I said: Bungie cooked a shooter that nobody wants to play long term. Cry all you want, facts don't care about your fantasy.
You're the one coping and crying, and the one saying fantasies (in this case, Marathon supposedly 'bleeding players'), when I already shown multiple times examples of Marathon performing better than several top performing similar games in terms of CCU or even CCU loss or "retention" (the real user retention metric is the DAU loss, not CCU) at the same point launch aligned.

You're being a gaming flatearther.

Finally, those 87% ''Very Positive'' reviews you love so much? Pure self-selection bias.
The massive free Server Slam (143k peak) let everyone try it. Only the people who already loved the gunplay and loop dropped $40 and bothered to review. The ones who found it mid or frustrating simply didn't buy so Steam is flooded with preconvinced Bungie fans in full honeymoon mode. That's why the score looks inflated right now. Doesn't mean shit long-term when the extraction loop gets stale and players ghost.

Now Marathon is supposed to have invented open alpha/betas/stress test servers? And the 88% positive reviews for Marathon aren't valid, but let's say the 87% positive reviews of Arc Raiders are, despite it also having a open beta stress servers just before launch, which was even also called "server slam"?

To make open alpha, betas, server stress tests or demos aren't something special, most MP/GaaS games do it.

That's multiple posts of mine you've replied to which have brought nothing to the table.
I just explained why they were wrong, quite often providing objective factual data.

In this case, Marathon did a server stress free weekend before launch. Which, like demos/open alphas/open betas, isn't anything special. In fact Marathon only had a single open one before launch (like Arc Raiders to name an example), while others even had more.
 
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And Opencritic has 18 reviews, a 76 score and only a 59% critic reco.

Lucky for Marathon lots of sites are holding off reviews till the content drop as per Bungie's reco, so the scores will be artificially inflated when they do their reviews with more content and any patches that come with the download.
Destiny was they same way, raids didn't launch with the expansion. 4th map is apparently endgame content. So I guess we will see.
 
Are we expecting a third or fourth week peak for Marathon?

The games which peaked in their third or fourth week, did they have a lower second week than first week?
 
Destiny was they same way, raids didn't launch with the expansion. 4th map is apparently endgame content. So I guess we will see.
Possibly. You never know.

But Marathon's launch is nowhere close to Destiny. In first 5 days, Destiny sold through $325M at retail, estimated to be worth about 5M copies. Marathon (assuming Gamalytics is accurate) is at 2M in about 10 days.


 
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