Marathon, the new extraction shooter from Bungie and its first non-Destiny release since the first Destiny game launched in 2014, has had a middling start, to say the least. While it is praised by critics (myself included), it seemingly hasn't had the commercial success to match, and constant conversation about its concurrent player count on Steam seems to only fuel negative discourse around the game. But a new report has given us a bit more insight into how it's done on the sales charts.
Firstly, it's worth noting that while we've seen estimates about how much Marathon has sold, we don't have an exact figure because Bungie and PlayStation have yet to share one. We saw how it performed on the US sales charts thanks to Circana's latest report, and we saw an estimate last month that had it reaching an estimated 1.2 million copies sold, but nothing concrete.
Now, we have another third-party insight, this time coming from the analytics firm Ampere Analysis via The Game Business. In a larger report about console exclusives, when discussing how PlayStation's strategy of putting its first-party titles on Steam, The Game Business creator Chris Dring reported that "According to Ampere, Marathon attracted over 2.2 million players during its launch month, with 1.1 million on PC, 660,000 on PS5, and 525,000 on Xbox."
The fact that there is such a split between PC and console player numbers isn't the biggest surprise. Previous reports have pointed to how Marathon is more popular on PC, so it's not a shock that the number of players who played it on Steam was close to double the number of players on PS5, and actually more than double the number of players on Xbox Series X/S.
The phrasing that Marathon "attracted" that many players is interesting, though, because it's not like Marathon is available via a streaming service or is free-to-play. So 2.2 million players should mean 2.2 million copies sold. Even if it's not an exact figure of how many units Marathon sold, it at least suggests that the game's launch month sales were able to reach the multi-millions.
If Marathon has indeed reached over 2 million copies sold, even if that's lower than what PlayStation and Bungie expected it to hit, it would be nice to see some kind of statement from either party celebrating the success Marathon has seen. It would be better than the silence and the constant suggestions that circle online claiming the game is on its last legs.
At least Bungie has continued to be extremely communicative to its players, with constant updates that are always in conversation with how the community is responding to the game and its ever-evolving gameplay meta. The most recent update, for example, gave players one free entry per-week into the endgame raid, Cryo Archive, making the raid more accessible for players wanting to try it out without devaluing what players love about it, which is just how difficult it is to get into Cryo Archive and survive the run.
For more on Marathon, you can check out our hub page for the game for all of our coverage.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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