While neither Sony nor Bungie has revealed any sales figures for PvPvE extraction shooter despite the title having come out almost two whole months ago, there has been quite a bit of speculation about just how well it may have sold. The latest figures come from analytics firm Ampere (via The Game Business), which estimates that Marathon has been played by 2.2 million players in its launch month. Of this, 1.1 million players were on PC, 660,000 on PS5, and 525,000 on Xbox Series X/S.
The last time we saw any player figures for Marathon came from Alinea Analytics, who estimated sales of around 1.2 million copies of the extraction shooter, making $55 million in gross revenue for Bungie. Of this figure, 800,000 copies were believed to be sold through Steam, with PS5 taking second place with 217,000 copies, and Xbox Series X/S taking third with 133,000 copies.
Interestingly, both estimates for the shooter’s commercial performance have put the PS5 in second place, despite Marathon essentially being a first-party game for Sony since it owns Bungie.
Commenting on Marathon‘s concurrent player figures, former Square Enix Holdings business director Jacob Navok took to social media to note that Sony’s lack of marketing for the title is an indicator of an overall lack of faith in Bungie.
“Nearly 2k loss in peak in 24 hours,” he wrote. “Brutal. I had thought the floor was 15k, could be looking at a 10k floor.” He went on to point to the fact that Sony hasn’t been using its marketing capabilities with the PS5 dashboard to push Marathon. “Sony owns a ton of digital estate on the PlayStation dashboards to push Marathon,” he wrote. “Its lack of marketing push to support the numbers speaks to the lack of faith from the platform holder.”
Another social media user responded by bringing up the fact that Marathon has been topping the most-played charts on Xbox Series X/S since its release. Keeping this in mind, they posited that Microsoft would have done a better job with marketing than Sony.
“The #1 most played game by hours on Xbox this past month was Marathon,” they wrote. “If [Microsoft] owned it, it would be the biggest game since Halo. Sony doesn’t even try. MS would have it front page, and on Game Pass indefinitely. Marketing was non-existent. The least they could do is free for PS5.”
The player figures also paint an interesting picture for Sony’s multiplatform release ambitions going forward. The company has reportedly decided to scale back on its decision to bring single-player games to other consoles. However, it remains keen on releasing multiplayer titles on as many platforms as possible to ensure player numbers remain high.
Marathon is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and Bungie has continued to support the title with extensive post-launch updates. Among these has been a nerf to the WSTR Shotgun, which was previously two-shotting players through their stronger shields, making it the best choice for close-quarters engagement. For more details on Marathon, check out our review.
