Players abandon Marathon: Steam online count drops to critical levels

Marathon is rapidly losing players: its online count on Steam has fallen to just over 3300 people, and Bungie is preparing to transition from PvPvE to full cooperative PvE.

Despite ongoing investments from Sony and Bungie, the situation surrounding the extraction shooter is becoming increasingly difficult. The PC audience is estimated to be almost twice as large as the console audience, and the game's overall population already threatens its continued existence.

Low online numbers have also become a problem for matchmaking. The game is forced to group almost everyone looking for a match into lobbies. As a result, newcomers regularly encounter experienced players who dominate the servers.

For an extraction shooter, this is particularly painful: losing means losing collected gear. New players die quickly and don't have time to learn the mechanics, which prevents the game from attracting an audience.

In the third season, Bungie plans to significantly change Marathon. Instead of focusing on PvPvE, the developers are preparing a full cooperative PvE with powerful bosses and large locations. This approach should solve problems with matchmaking and encounters with experienced players.