Steam, Not PS5, Leads Marathon's Early Sales
A Sony-owned studio shipping most of its copies on Steam? That’s the story around Bungie’s Marathon, which may have sold roughly 1.2 million units worldwide with PC carrying the load, according to new analyst estimates.
Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, estimates in a new Substack post that Marathon has crossed about 1.2 million sales and generated around $55 million in revenue so far, excluding microtransactions. By platform, Alinea pegs sales at approximately 800,000 on Steam, 217,000 on PlayStation 5, and 133,000 on Xbox Series X/S. That puts close to 70 percent of the player base on PC, about 19 percent on PS5, and roughly 11 percent on Xbox.
It’s a striking split for a game developed by Bungie, now a first-party Sony studio. Reports in March suggested Sony would scale back PC releases for its single-player titles, while keeping multiplayer projects on PC. Marathon’s early audience skew makes a clear case for why those multiplayer exceptions matter.
Retention Paints a Healthier Picture
Sales tell only part of the story. Elliott also estimates Marathon is holding a healthy 380,000 daily active users, a sign that the players who stayed are sticking with it. Average playtime is another bright spot on PC, with Steam users logging around 27.8 hours, compared to 16.5 hours on PS5 and 17.3 hours on Xbox, per Alinea’s data. The game’s loop appears to be landing best on PC, where extraction shooters tend to thrive.
Getting players to that loop might be the harder part. Elliott suggests Marathon’s first impression isn’t as approachable as its closest competition, pointing to Arc Raiders’ popular Server Slam as a catalyst for surge growth. Marathon’s own Server Slam, by comparison, didn’t translate into the same momentum at launch. The read: plenty of people tried it early, fewer converted for the long term.
There’s also notable crossover with Bungie’s existing crowd and adjacent shooters on Steam. Alinea’s estimates indicate 78.2 percent of Marathon’s Steam players have also played Destiny 2, 62.7 percent have played Helldivers 2, 55.9 percent have tried Arc Raiders, and 52.3 percent have played Halo Infinite. That overlap suggests Marathon is resonating with players already comfortable with live-service grinds and PvE/PvP hybrids.
How Firm Are The Numbers?
These are third-party estimates, but they’re not flying blind. Forbes reporter Paul Tassi writes that Alinea’s figures are close to Bungie’s internal data, according to his sources. He also reports that there are no content cutbacks on the near horizon, writing: “There are no plans to scale back or change content plans from here, as of now.” Work on future seasons is underway, he adds, while cautioning that doesn’t automatically make Marathon the breakout hit Bungie needs.
Put together, the picture is nuanced: a strong PC-led start, a tougher funnel for new players, and a committed core logging serious hours. That combination can sustain a live game—if updates address the onboarding friction and reinforce what’s already clicking on Steam.
What It Means For Bungie And Sony
For Bungie, the job now isn’t chasing a new audience at any cost; it’s smoothing the early experience and building seasonal beats that reward those 380,000 daily players while inviting lapsed testers back. For Sony, Marathon’s split underlines why multiplayer releases need day-and-date PC support even when the studio sits in-house. Pull away from that PC audience and the foundation gets shakier fast.
If Bungie can tighten the first few hours, keep content flowing as Tassi describes, and continue leaning into PC where engagement is highest, 1.2 million could be the floor rather than the ceiling. The sales skew is surprising, sure, but it also looks like a roadmap: go where the players are, and make it easier for everyone else to stay.
