Marathon’s player base is collapsing, and Bungie’s future looks increasingly bleak as concerns grow around the studio’s live‑service direction

Marathon soldier reaches toward a cracked red Bungie logo on a dark background.

It’s hard to really put into words how I feel about Bungie right now. As a lifelong Halo fan, the studio will always have a special place in my heart, but the way it has operated since leaving Xbox has been less than ideal and, honestly, devastating to watch as a fan.

For those out of the loop, Bungie recently shifted its focus away from Destiny in favor of Marathon. Unfortunately, that decision doesn’t appear to be paying off. Marathon recently peaked at around 6,000 concurrent players on Steam, while Destiny 2 reached almost 60,000 during the same period, around 10 times more than Marathon.