Bungie’s Marathon has reached another uncomfortable milestone on Steam, with its concurrent player count falling below 1,000 for the first time since launch.
According to a Steam chart on August 24, Marathon dropped to 987 concurrent players. Community tracking later suggested the count may have dipped slightly lower, but the important milestone remains the same: Marathon has now entered triple-digit territory on Steam.
In brief
- Marathon dropped below 1,000 concurrent Steam players for the first time
- Its 24-hour Steam peak had fallen to 3,292
- Sony recently claimed Marathon has maintained a high retention rate while acquiring new users
Marathon’s Steam Player Count Hits a New Low
The latest SteamDB snapshot paints a rough picture for Bungie’s extraction shooter. Alongside the 987 player low, Marathon recorded a 24-hour peak of only 3,292 players, putting it within striking distance of falling below a 3,000 daily peak.
This is a massive decline from Marathon’s 88,337 all-time Steam peak following its March launch. Earlier in August, the game was already averaging around 3,000 players for the month, down sharply from the numbers seen during launch and Season 2.
Seasonal updates have produced temporary increases, but so far those bumps have not stopped the overall downward trajectory.
Sony Says Marathon Is Still Retaining Players
The numbers make Sony’s recent comments about Marathon particularly interesting. During Sony’s July 31 financial results presentation, the company stated:
“With the release of Season 2 in June, Marathon has maintained a high user retention rate while also acquiring new users.”
For accuracy, Sony did not say this was happening “on a consistent and regular basis.” And that wording appears to come from subsequent social media commentary rather than Sony’s official statement.
Still, seeing a game described as having “high user retention” shortly before its Steam population falls into triple digits is certainly going to raise eyebrows.
Steam Does Not Tell the Entire Marathon Story
There is one important caveat. Steam concurrent players represent only the PC population. Marathon is also available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Sony has access to engagement data that is not publicly available.
Even with that qualification, dropping from 88,337 Steam players at launch to fewer than 1,000 online simultaneously less than six months later is a trend Bungie will undoubtedly want to reverse. At this point, the upcoming season 3 will be the turning point for this game.
