On March 5, 2026, the latest game from Bungie was released for Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5: Marathon, an extraction shooter with a strong focus on PvP. The game has been the subject of lively discussions since then. Many gamers wonder if the success of Marathon will be enough to satisfy Sony, or if the shooter signals the end for the studio. MeinMMO editor Dariusz addresses this question.
Marathon is in a strange situation. There is a huge gap between the perception of the game on social networks like Reddit and X and player ratings on Steam.
On social media, Marathon is portrayed as one of the worst games of all time. A post on X claims, according to SteamDB, that Marathon has been returned over 500,000 times. However, SteamDB does not provide figures on refunds.
Even on Twitch, comments in various chats express how bad the game is – even though the streamer is obviously having fun. TheBurntPeanut therefore plays the game offline when he is not live on Twitch (via TikTok).
On Steam, however, the mood is largely positive. Out of 23,105 reviews, as many as 88% are positive. If you filter out players who have played less than an hour, it’s even 90% positive reviews.
Marathon shows what Bungie’s biggest problem really is
The gap between the perceived mood and the ratings of actual players highlights the biggest problem with Marathon:
Bungie has lost the favor of its fans with Destiny 2.
Many long-time Destiny players have lost trust in Bungie. There are too many criticisms that the community simply cannot forget.
- Monetization
- Fostering FOMO (fear of missing out)
- Recycling content
- The so-called content vault – that is, content that has been removed from the game even though players paid for it.
- And overall, the community feedback that has simply been ignored for too long.
In 2025, I analyzed the question: Does Marathon have a chance at success? Even then, I feared similar outcomes. I will quote myself:
Overall, it’s hard to imagine that Bungie will achieve financial success in the coming years – regardless of the quality of the respective product. The former fans of Bungie are so dissatisfied and frustrated that they – it seems currently – are negative towards everything Bungie is doing.
This discontent with Bungie is also reflected in our comments on MeinMMO. In my preview report on Marathon, I explained why the game is among the best shooters of 2026, according to me. Some MeinMMO readers see it differently, others don’t even give the game a chance due to their past with Bungie.
MeinMMO reader EsmaraldV aptly summarizes the feelings of many Destiny players:
“I maintain my stance mentioned in the article: Bungie has lost my trust and will not get another cent from me. Generally, I will refrain from commenting on the gameplay, as I do not play it, but the criticized battle pass speaks volumes; Bungie-style – whoever still supports that and fails to learn from mistakes – is just plain foolish.”
Sony’s sharp eye on Marathon’s success
Sony bought Bungie in 2022 for around 3.2 billion euros. The company is keeping a close eye on what the developer studio behind Destiny 2 is doing. Already in 2023, a report from Bloomberg indicated that Bungie was 45% below Sony’s expectations.
The struggling Destiny 2 had been considered the studio’s main source of revenue, and Sony is likely to have some expectations for Marathon as well.
Forbes journalist Paul Tassi, who has close ties to Bungie, reported last year that Marathon would need to be one of the top 5 best-selling games in the USA in 2025 to be considered a “success” (via YouTube) – this was however before the shooter’s release was postponed.
Recently, there have also been rumors online that Marathon cost 250 million USD and needed 10 million sales to be considered a “hit”.
However, there has been no official statement from Sony or Bungie regarding the development costs or expected sales.
In an interview with YouTuber Skill Up, Marathon’s game director Joe Ziegler revealed that in 2025, slightly less than 300 developers were working on the shooter. He also stated that at that time, the game had been in development at Bungie for more than 4 years – and since then, another year has been added.
Let’s look at some numbers:
| Average salary at Bungie | 98,000 USD per year |
| Development duration | More than 5 years |
| Estimated salary costs over 5 years | 70-110 million USD (About 147 million USD with a constant 300 employees) |
| Marketing | AAA average around 25 million USD |
| additional costs (Office maintenance, infrastructure, etc.) | up to 5-10% of total costs |
Breakdown of the cost estimate
The average salary at Bungie is said to be around 98,000 USD per year (source: salary.com). With 300 employees, this results in about 147 million USD in pure salary costs over 5 years. However, it is likely that not all 300 employees worked continuously on the shooter. It is quite possible that salary costs are actually between 70 and 110 million USD.
Additional costs for marketing and office maintenance as well as other infrastructure come on top. According to the information service zipdo, AAA games spend an average of around 25 million USD on marketing. This corresponds with other sources, which state that about 10-20% of the total budget goes for marketing.
The rumored 250 million USD for Marathon seems somewhat high compared to these numbers, but not unrealistic. It could also just as easily be 150-200 million USD.
But even that Marathon has to recoup first.
Player numbers in decline, but sales figures are not a disaster
In the discourse surrounding Marathon, many talk about player numbers. The game is said to be a flop, and the numbers show it. The peak for Marathon only lies just below 88,000 concurrent players on Steam in the release week. Even now, there are only 26,000 players online on Valve’s gaming platform (as of March 10, 1:30 PM). The daily peak is currently usually between 65,000 and 80,000 players (via SteamDB).
These numbers certainly do not compare to the success of ARC Raiders. The competitor of Marathon still sees daily peaks of 170,000 to 250,000 concurrent players five months after release and has sold over 10 million copies.
Bungie and Sony have not yet released sales figures for Marathon. Analysis platforms like gamalytic and PlayTracker speak of 911,000-975,000 copies sold on Steam (as of March 13, 2026).
The player and sales figures of Marathon on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S are unknown. However, Bungie is usually much stronger represented on consoles than on Steam. The tracker “Charlemagne” created by the Destiny community impressively shows the player counts of Destiny 2 per platform.
On March 8, the overall distribution of Destiny players was as follows:
- PlayStation: 78,520 (around 45%)
- Xbox: 58,290 (around 33%)
- Steam: 35,740 (around 20.37%)
The consoles made up 78% of the player counts for Destiny 2 on March 8. If we now speculate that the distribution for Marathon is similar, the shooter could have sold about 3,229,000 copies on consoles. The 911,000 sold units on Steam served as the basis for this calculation.
This would mean:
Marathon would exceed 4.1 million sales in the release week, and Bungie would have already earned 118 million euros with Marathon at an average global purchase price of 29 €. Deductions for taxes or platform fees to Steam etc. are not yet taken into account.
According to the market research company Alinea Analytics, ARC Raiders sold 2.5 million copies in the release week, with 69.2% of the players being on Steam. So Marathon might not be doing that badly compared to ARC Raiders, as the Steam figures currently suggest.
Is Sony’s takeover looming?
In recent months and years, we have witnessed several studio closures. For example, Sony closed Firewalk Studios in October 2024, after its hero shooter Concord flopped so badly that it was taken offline just 12 days after release. In February 2026, Sony also announced the closure of Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the remake of Demon’s Souls.
Concord shows what the worst-case scenario could be for Marathon and Bungie:
On failure, the game is taken offline first, then some time later the studio is closed.
This is a fate that several developers have recently shared. On March 12, the shutdown of Highguard follows, a hero shooter that was only released at the end of January and where the Chinese technology giant Tencent was the secret main financier. The shutdown comes just 45 days after the release.
So the question arises:
Is Marathon facing shutdown and what’s next for Bungie?
A report from IGN from 2023 states that Sony could dissolve Bungie’s current board if financial goals are not met and take full control.
If Sony is unhappy with Bungie’s financial success, this is likely what the next step would look like. After all, Sony paid 3.2 billion euros for the studio, so they will first try everything to get as much as possible out of it.
A closure of Bungie is currently unrealistic.
Conclusion: What lies ahead for Marathon and Bungie
If Sony aims for an early shutdown of Marathon, this will likely become evident in the next 3-6 weeks. This has been the recent timeframe in which such decisions have been made in the industry.
If the speculated figures of 4.1 million sales are accurate, Marathon will almost certainly survive in the coming weeks and months. The game has the potential to steadily gather more players over time, as the negative discourse settles a bit. ARC Raiders also gained a considerable number of players in the weeks following its release.
Bungie already has plans for future seasons and in-game events, which could also attract new players. In addition to game sales, there are revenues from skins and battle passes.
Nevertheless, the leadership at Bungie must show a keen interest in making Marathon a success. If the shooter surprisingly sells best on Steam against expectations, the numbers look worrying.
Then the takeover by Sony would likely be inevitable in the coming months.
Marathon is just beginning, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is supplied with new content for at least a year. The takeover by Sony or even the closure of the studio is probably not imminent – but Bungie is not yet safe.
If you’re still undecided about whether Marathon might appeal to you, we’ve prepared a short check including a quiz for you. There you will find important information about the shooter and can find out if the game is interesting for you by answering 10 questions: Is Marathon worth it for you? A short check with quiz
