Marathon starts this week on a high, reaching the top of Steam’s best-selling games as it prepares for the full launch after an intense Server Slam playtest.
At the time of writing, Marathon is the third best-selling game on Steam, according to SteamDB. However, it was caught in second place, passing Counter-Strike 2, by a Reddit user on March 2. It’s a tough battle between CS2 and the recently released Resident Evil Requiem, but the fact that Marathon made it into the top three speaks volumes.
Leading up to the playtest and during its early days, Marathon was under a lot of scrutiny, with players calling it simply a bad game and another Concord. The early impressions ranged from uncertainty about the game to outright boredom.
Having said that, Marathon is a game that gets better the more you play, and player sentiment supported that throughout the Server Slam. As you learn what certain items do, try out all Runner Shells and get into fast-paced gunfights, Marathon becomes the intense and competitive extraction shooter it aims to be.
The art style is another highlight of Marathon. While subjective, its vibrancy and blockiness make the game stand out among the competition. It builds the unique, dark sci-fi world of Tau Ceti IV and gives players another reason to jump in.
There are still issues to address, including the UI, and Bungie highlighted them in the Server Slam summary. These changes likely won’t come immediately, but the developer is dedicated to improving the experience as quickly as possible.
Most importantly, Marathon found its core audience who voted with their wallets, resulting in the game reaching the top of Steam’s best sellers, despite how vocal certain parts of the internet have been. What’s left now is see how Bungie carries that momentum post-launch, with endgame maps like Cryo Archive, ranked play, and the rest of seasonal content.
