Marathon's IGN 9 Goes Unnoticed as Bungie's Marketing Campaign Falls Flat

Bungie's Marathon launched across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in September 2025, peaked at 8.7万 concurrent players on Steam, then lost over half its audience. IGN gave it a 9, Steam reviews sit at 85% positive—yet former Square Enix executive Jacob Navok says the core issue is visibility: "Honestly, this is the best shooter I've played in a long time. But here's the thing—no one knows about it."

Navok didn't hold back on Bungie's marketing: "This isn't some indie passion project. They should be carpet-bombing every social channel, every streaming platform, every corner of the internet. Instead? Radio silence." For a simultaneous three-platform release from a studio of Bungie's scale, the lack of basic pre-launch momentum stands out.

Compared to competing shooters' promotional blitzes, Marathon practically went stealth. Strong reviews can't fix low awareness—8.7万 peak players underwhelms for Bungie's profile. If you're a shooter fan who missed this one, now's a decent entry point, assuming the servers can handle the remaining half of the player base.