The new sci-fi style PvPvE extraction shooting game “Marathon (Lost Starship: Marathon / Lost Starship: Marathon)” created by Bungie has rapidly gained popularity after the Server Slam public beta event. Not only did the peak number of simultaneous online users exceed 140,000, but it also directly ranked third on the Steam best-selling list, only behind “Resident Evil Requiem” and the long-standing “Counter-Strike 2”. For a work that has not yet been officially released, this performance really surprised many people.
Public beta volume is directly converted into chart rankings
So far, the Steam global best-selling ranking shows that “Counter-Strike 2” is firmly ranked first, “Resident Evil Requiem” is ranked second, and “Marathon” is closely following. More importantly, it has surpassed popular works such as “ARC Raiders” and “Apex Legends”. The new work, which was originally criticized for not being popular enough, is now suddenly ranked among the top three. As a result, the community discussion forum has raised voices of “Is it underestimated?”
A few weeks ago, cold water was poured on it, and the trend was once generally negative.
But moving forward a few weeks, the atmosphere was completely different. In the early testing phase, Marathon was repeatedly discussed by the community due to problems such as complex UI, unclear rhythm, and confusing matching mechanism. There were even voices saying “This is not at Bungie level.” Coupled with the fierce competition in the extraction and shooting track, many players once questioned whether it could stand in the market. It would be an understatement to say that the tone of discussions during that period was cold water.
Is the extraction shot really going to take off?
“Marathon” focuses on PvPvE extraction gameplay, integrating PvP confrontation and PvE exploration mechanisms. This genre has gradually attracted market attention in recent years, and the scale and topicality of this public beta successfully drove pre-orders and exposure. Some people think that this may be a signal that the extraction type shooting type is heating up again, while others think that it is just an amplification of the test effect, but in any case, the volume has indeed increased.
The list is beautiful, but the controversy has not disappeared
Of course, some players have reminded that Steam rankings will be affected by price, pre-order status and regional fluctuations, and the final sales trend cannot be determined based on rankings alone. In addition, there are still different opinions on the experience feedback during the test period, and high popularity does not mean that the problem is completely solved. However, in terms of exposure, “Marathon” did successfully create a sense of presence before its official launch.