Extraction shooters are the latest trend in live-service games, with ARC Raiders taking the spotlight in October 2025. A title often compared to ARC Raiders is Marathon, which offers a different take on the genre.
Both priced at $40, Marathon and ARC Raiders offer unique extraction shooter experiences. If you’re deciding which one to play, here are the key differences between ARC Raiders and Marathon.
Table of contents
First person and third person: ARC Raiders vs Marathon
| ARC Raiders | Marathon |
|---|---|
| +/- Third-person only | +/- First-person only |
What might be a decisive factor for you is the POV in which you play. ARC Raiders is a third-person shooter that allows for shoulder peeking and swapping. Marathon is a first-person shooter, allowing for more precise gunplay.
While the perspective may significantly impact your decision, the games differ in other aspects. So even if you may not be a fan of third-person shooters, don’t immediately discard ARC Raiders, and vice versa, as the other game might be a better fit, depending on the type of player you are.
Solo, duo, and trio queues: ARC Raiders vs Marathon
| ARC Raiders | Marathon |
|---|---|
| + Matchmaking supports solo, duo, and trio lobbies | + Matchmaking supports solo and trio lobbies |
| – No duo-queue |
At the time of writing, Marathon only supports solo and trio matchmaking, unlike ARC Raiders. This means if you play as a duo, you will get a random teammate or face other trios at a man disadvantage.
Bungie already mentioned it’s considering a duos playlist, but in the meantime, if it’s just you and your friend, your experience might be worse compared to ARC Raiders.
Classes, loadouts, and buildcrafting: ARC Raiders vs Marathon
| ARC Raiders | Marathon |
|---|---|
| + Traditional character and loadout system | + Expansive stat system allows for more buildcrafting + Cores for Runner Shells create more playstyle options |
| +/- Augments offer only slightly different playstyle options | +/- Runner Shells with unique abilities |
In an extraction shooter, you need to carefully prepare for every run, choosing gear and weapons that best suit the job. ARC Raiders follows a more traditional loadout and gear system, where you choose your Augments, weapons, consumables, and throwables to take into the raid. Different Augments determine the number of backpack slots, shields you can equip, and also provide minor buffs like restoring a little bit of health when not taking damage.
In Marathon, you fight with more than just your gear. One of the core features that came under scrutiny when it was first announced was its classes, or Runner Shells. Runner Shells are archetypes with specific abilities that you can build on with Cores and Implants. There are multiple stats and abilities that you can lean into to find your favorite playstyle.
Runner Shells are more flexible than traditional characters in games like Delta Force, but they make Marathon more like a hero-shooter nonetheless.
Progression: ARC Raiders vs Marathon
| ARC Raiders | Marathon |
|---|---|
| + Gear crafting + Blueprints allow you to permanently craft certain items |
+ Faction contracts + Schemas allow for temporary access to certain items |
| – No gear crafting |
Progression in ARC Raiders is focused primarily on crafting and upgrading the skill tree. You head out into the world, gather all sorts of materials, from scrap to lemons, then bring them back to Speranza and put them to use. There are multiple workshops you can upgrade to access higher-tier gear on top of finding crafting blueprints in the wild. While you do all that, you gain skill points to improve certain gameplay aspects, like mobility, increasing your overall capabilities.
Marathon doesn’t have crafting. Instead, you complete contracts at one of the six factions to level them up. Every faction has a dedicated upgrade tree and an Armory store specializing in a certain type of wares. For example, MIDA is all about anarchy—its quests are about blowing stuff up, while the store offers explosives and offensive Implants.
The more contracts you complete, the faster you level up the faction and gain access to higher-tier goods, raising your power floor throughout the season.
Wipes: ARC Raiders vs Marathon
| ARC Raiders | Marathon |
|---|---|
| + Wipes are voluntary | + Every season is a level playing field |
| – Wipes are quite demanding and aren’t really worth it | – Your progress gets wiped every season |
This brings us to wipes, which are a core part of any extraction shooter. A wipe resets your progress, ensuring a level playing field for all players heading into the next cycle/season. Thanks to wipes, you won’t have a situation where a certain percentage of players always dominates lobbies with the best gear.
In ARC Raiders, wipes are voluntary and are done through the Expedition project, where you must commit resources throughout a certain time period. If you decide to commit to the wipe, you get cosmetic rewards, increased stash size, skill points, and xp boosts.
Marathon follows a more traditional route, with mandatory seasonal wipes. While this may not be for everyone, seasonal wipes keep the game and loot economy balanced, which improves the overall experience, especially in a hardcore extraction shooter with a heavy focus on PvP.
PvE, PvP, and social aspect: ARC Raiders vs Marathon
| ARC Raiders | Marathon |
|---|---|
| + Challenging PvE + Aggression-based matchmaking |
+ Challenging PvE + Ranked mode |
| +/- More friendly PvP encounters | +/- Shoot-on-sight PvP encounters |
The main reason some are wary of extraction shooters is because of PvP. It’s in the genre’s DNA to encounter other players during runs, which often leads to gunfights. And if you get killed, you lose all the loot you were carrying. It can be discouraging, but it also adds a layer of tension to gameplay.
ARC Raiders is naturally more friendly, with an overall narrative focused on fighting dangerous ARC enemies. To take on some of the machines, you need to gather a lot of people, which is why Raiders are more open to talking, helping each other out, and teaming up. The game even has aggression-based matchmaking, which may put you in lobbies that match your fondness for PvP.
While you may encounter a friendly player on Tau Ceti IV, Marathon is geared toward a more competitive, PvP-focused audience. Most people shoot on sight, and with fast time-to-kill (TTK), you may end up back at the main menu in a split second.
To fuel the competitive environment, Marathon also features a ranked mode where you can climb leaderboards for rewards. In ARC Raiders, such competitiveness was limited only to Trials, and the PvP-focused Trials have recently been removed.
Which one should you play? ARC Raiders vs Marathon
Despite some things coming down to personal preference, like choosing between first-person and third-person player perspectives, there’s a definitive answer to which extraction would suit you best.
ARC Raiders is a much more casual extraction shooter that you may enjoy even if you’re completely new to the genre. With the narrative focusing a lot on fighting the ARC and aggression-based matchmaking, you can make new friends while enjoying the PvE side of the game, with progression that doesn’t reset every couple of months. You’ll still get shot from time to time, but it makes for a more social experience.
Marathon is the opposite, and a more hardcore experience. If you prefer shooting on sight in a hardcore and competitive environment, prepare to deploy on Tau Ceti IV. Seasonal wipes, ranked play, and fast TTK all make it a more intense experience, especially when playing solo.
