Bungie’s Marathon Hits 86K Steam Players: Can It Beat ARC Raiders?

Following a lengthy delay, Bungie has officially launched its highly anticipated extraction shooter, Marathon. Arrived on March 5 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, the $39.99 title marks an ambitious new chapter for the Halo and Destiny creators. While the game has debuted to glowing reviews praising its innovative gunplay and breathtaking visuals, early player counts show it hasn't quite managed to topple the genre's reigning champion: Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders.

Looking at the initial numbers, Marathon at launch hit a peak of just over 86,000 concurrent players on Steam. While this is a respectable turnout that grew steadily throughout the day, it sits well below the game's own late-February Server Slam peak of 143,621. For context, its biggest competitor, ARC Raiders, exploded out of the gate back in October with an impressive 264,000 concurrent Steam players at launch.

ARC Raiders continues to completely dominate the charts following its highly successful pivot from a PvE-only concept to a PvPvE format, a move that ultimately helped it win Best Multiplayer at the 2025 Game Awards, as per GameRant. 

Across all platforms, ARC Raiders maintains a staggering 3.2 million active players, with industry tracking firm Alinea Analytics estimating over 12 million copies sold and making at least over $350m in revenue. The title holds an all-time Steam peak of nearly 481,966 concurrent players. However, Marathon might be outperforming ARC Raiders on consoles, as data shows the Embark shooter's massive player base leans heavily toward PC.

Marathon Secures "Very Positive" Reviews

Despite trailing in raw player volume, Marathon is a massive critical success that briefly overtook ARC Raiders for the top-seller spot on Steam. Out of the gate, the game amassed thousands of user reviews, securing a formidable "Very Positive" rating. 

The division between the two player bases largely comes down to accessibility. Marathon pushes the boundaries of the genre by leaning heavily into a punishing, high-stakes first-person experience where player-versus-player combat is unavoidable. ARC Raiders, conversely, offers a much more forgiving third-person perspective. 

Arc aggression-based matchmaking makes it easy for players who just want to focus on PvE encounters, crafting, and cooperative survival to do exactly that. As one reviewer noted about Marathon's steeper learning curve, "Just give yourself time to understand how the game loop works, and eventually everything will just click."

While the gameplay loop is clicking for many, one persistent complaint among early adopters is Marathon's clunky and confusing user interface. Fortunately, Bungie acknowledged these obtuse UI hurdles during the recent Server Slam and plans to iterate on the menus in post-launch updates.

As the developers look ahead to these quality-of-life changes and cross-play improvements, Marathon has successfully carved out a dedicated hardcore niche, even as ARC Raiders securely defends its mainstream appeal.