The marathon isn't even out yet, and it's already seen some ups and downs. From going through the wringer for comparisons to Concord and including literary artifacts, to eating into Arc Raiders' player base and making an impression on the first day of its server slam, it's been through a lot.
The server slam began yesterday, and has seen a peak concurrent player count of 143,621, according to SteamDB. While that's not even close to Arc Raiders levels, the numbers will likely add up over the weekend. It's safe to say there's clearly interest in the game, and it's not another Concord.
Marathon gets huge numbers on the first day of Server Slam
The server slam is active until March 5th, so there's plenty of time for those numbers to go even higher. Arc Raiders reached its peak three months ago at 481,966, and its server slam reached nearly 200,000 concurrent users. With the marathon still a long way to go, we will get a fair idea of the numbers only after the games begin.
Two withdrawal shooters have already managed to engage each other. Early in the marathon server slam, players commented that the words 'Ark Raiders' were being censored in chat. Bungie quickly addressed it, saying it was a bug. Oddly enough, this happened when Call of Duty Black Ops 7 also launched.
Before that, Arch Riders promised severe punishment for hackers and dupers after Marathon announced a zero-tolerance policy with Perma-Ban. The Arc Raiders community felt that the devs' initial approach was too lax, but it seems that Marathon's statement forced them to tighten up as well.
- issued
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Juvenile/animated blood, language, violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer, online co-op
