Marathon Server Slam Beta hits 143,000 Steam players: gunplay praised, UI criticism mounts
Bungie’s latest foray into the extraction-shooter genre, Marathon, has made quite the comeback after being indefinitely delayed. Marathon kicked off its Server Slam beta test on 26 February, and to the surprise of many skeptical gamers, the playtest garnered the attention of 143,000 concurrent players on Steam within the first day of launch, which is quite impressive given Marathon’s bumpy playtests over the course of 2025.
One should keep in mind that these player counts do not account for users enjoying the extraction shooter on the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S. Undoubtedly, player participation in Marathon’s current Server Slam beta is expected to be higher.
Currently, Marathon’s Server Slam beta is the final playtest for gamers to try out Bungie’s new extraction shooter for free. On Bungie’s part, it’s a pretty smart move to analyze early player feedback while keeping the hype train going right before the game’s release.
Many gamers have praised Marathon’s grueling and brutal take on the extraction-shooter genre, where PvP and PvE encounters have been quite tense. However, Steam player counts have significantly declined over the course of a day, dropping to around 70,000 concurrent players. This could be attributed to the game’s brutal difficulty, but it still shows that players are trying to figure out the ins and outs of Marathon.
It’s possible that Marathon might see a resurgence of players over the weekend, as drop-offs mid-beta are fairly normal.
For context, Marathon’s popularity parallels that of Arc Raiders, which reached a peak of almost 190,000 concurrent players during its final beta playtest. Since then, Arc Raiders has sold over 14 million units worldwide, so it doesn’t seem far-fetched that Marathon might end up going toe-to-toe with Embark’s extraction shooter post-launch.
So far, gamers have praised Marathon’s gunplay, given that Bungie is well known for its arsenal of unique and fun weapons in games like Destiny 2. However, gamers have voiced a fair bit of pent-up frustration about the game’s user interface, which many find hard to understand amid too much visual noise.
Still, Bungie is upbeat about user criticism and feedback and encourages newcomers to voice their thoughts and opinions to ensure quality-of-life changes to Marathon in the coming weeks.
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