Following the reveal of its release date, Marathon has seen a surge of interest as PC players have begun locking in preorders for Bungie’s sci-fi extraction shooter. At the time of writing, Marathon is the fifth-best-selling game on Steam in the US and 10th globally on the Steam Charts. Free-to-play games like Marvel Rivals and Counter-Strike 2 are ahead of it–only natural, given the low price of nothing for those titles–and Arc Raiders is still in the top spot for now.
This is a positive step forward for the game, considering last year’s controversy over alleged stolen art assets and the lukewarm reception since its reveal. It’s also worth noting that Marathon will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S at launch, but sales data for those platforms isn’t currently available to gauge player interest. Marathon was originally aiming to launch in September last year–a release date that would have brought it perilously close to the mega-successful Arc Raiders.
It’s now scheduled to launch on March 5, which gives it a fairly comfortable window to make its sales mark. The Steam preorders suggest it’ll launch on PC with considerable momentum, but it remains to be seen whether it’ll be able to hold onto its players in the highly competitive live-service games market.
With its release date drawing closer, Bungie has begun to lift the lid on what it has been cooking for the last couple of years. The $40 game features a stacked cast of talented voice actors, details on the various Runner shells have been revealed, and the PC requirements for the stylish game aren’t too high. Sony has also shown off a limited-edition DualSense controller inspired by the game, and preorders for it open soon.
