Marathon may actually have a shot as Server Slam hits it big on Steam

Things are officially looking better for Marathon. The game’s Server Slam, essentially an open beta that’s freely available everywhere, has kicked off. This is the last chance for anyone curious about Bungie’s next big game to play it before it officially goes on sale next week.

Considering how unpopular the game has been throughout its development, and judging by the feedback from earlier closed beta tests, the turnout for the Server Slam is definitely encouraging.

The Marathon Server Slam has been online for a little over 12 hours on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Only one of those platforms shares player numbers, of course, but it's enough to offer some visibility into how popular the test has been.

Immediately after servers went live, Marathon shot up the Steam most played charts. The game quickly achieved a peak of 143,621 concurrent players (via SteamDB), which is very respectable. Given that the Server Slam will be available for the entire weekend, there’s every chance the numbers will go up.

These figures are particularly encouraging when you look at Arc Raiders, the current top dog in the extraction shooter space, and the game that stole Marathon’s thunder last year when the two of them were being promoted by their publishers. Marathon, of course, got delayed out of 2025, which allowed Arc Raiders to launch first. It, of course, ended up proving that extraction shooters can be mainstream hits.

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Like Marathon, Arc Raiders hosted its own server slam just a few days before its launch. That open test attracted 189,668 concurrent players at its peak, which is not that far off from Marathon’s so far.

Assuming positive word of mouth continues, more players are bound to jump in over the weekend and perhaps get Marathon to match or even exceed Arc Raiders’ record. At any rate, this is good news for beleaguered Bungie and points to what could be a big launch.

Marathon arrives March 5 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.