Marathon lost over 95% of players on Steam

The evacuation shooter Marathon has shed more than 95% of its Steam players. Less than six months after launch, the numbers have collapsed: peak online on the Valve service slipped from 88,337 players to 3,783, and lately it rarely tops ~5,000 concurrent users. PC sales, reportedly strong according to some analysts (e.g., early purchase figures), haven't translated into sustained activity — or at least not on Steam, i.e., player retention looks poor. Consoles are unlikely to be in better shape; PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S usually track differently, but this trend smells the same. Season three is due at the end of next month; can Bungie turn things around? Maybe — but after a flop like this, Sony could pull support and reassign the team to other projects.