Bungie’s latest FPS, Marathon, launched in early 2026 to huge acclaim, gaining a ‘Principally Constructive’ ranking on Steam and a well-earned 8/10 from us in our assessment – however months after launch, the studio’s golden little one, Future 2, is steamrolling (excuse the pun) the shooter in its concurrent participant rely.
Across the time of launch, FPS sport Marathon hit an all-time peak of 77,358 gamers in accordance with Steam Charts, with SteamDB citing it as 88,337. Comparatively, each cite Future 2’s Steam launch stats from 2019 – simply shy of two years after launch – as anyplace from round 292,000 to over 316,000. The now shuttered Highguard even punched barely above Marathon’s complete, capping out at over 97,000 on launch day in accordance with SteamDB earlier than rapidly really fizzling out (although Steam Charts has it listed at a a lot decrease 13,115).
Quick ahead to at present, and regardless of Future 2 having future updates placed on ice, it is reaching 47,000 concurrent gamers in comparison with Marathon’s 2,800. That is a distinction of over ten occasions the variety of players concurrently logging in.
Since Future launched its remaining replace, Second of Triumph, on Tuesday, June 9, its participant rely has persistently peaked at over 50,000 in any at some point. Regardless of it persistently trending down since that date (which reached over 167,000), it is nonetheless far and above something Marathon has but to achieve since June started – hitting barely over 40,000 following Season 2’s June 2 launch.
Whereas comparisons between the 2 video games aren’t a 1:1, particularly contemplating style variations and no simply trackable knowledge for the way Future 2 carried out on launch (although a 2017 report from gamesindustry.biz mentions “peak concurrent participant counts over 1 million,”) it is nonetheless a big sufficient hole between a sport not receiving content material updates and one on account of obtain its third season in September of this 12 months.
Whether or not Marathon catches as much as the long-term playerbase its sibling has garnered stays to be seen, however for now, Future 2 seems to be to be something however driving off into the sundown.
