Update 06/03/2026: Following the publication of this article, the co-founder of MegaCrit and one of the main developers behind Slay the Spire 2, Casey Yano, has further clarified that the sarcastic jab the studio took at Bungie's Marathon really was just a joke, and has apologized for it now seeming "a bit meaner than it was intended."
"This seems a bit meaner than it was intended...To be fair I didn't think we'd actually pass Marathon in concurrent users."
At least two of the developers on Marathon, UI designer Elliot Gray and Marathon's community manager, Cozmo, responded to the post with Gray saying, "There's no point being in the electronic toy biz if you can't have a laugh!."
So, at least MegaCrit's jab was seemingly taken by Bungie the way it was meant to be. Also, a small update on player numbers. While Marathon has yet to reach a new peak, Slay the Spire 2 reached 430,456 before dropping back down. Even as it dips, it has yet to fall below 150K.
Original Story:
Yesterday, two major titles were released at the same time on Steam (and one of them also launched on PS5 and Xbox Series). Bungie's new extraction shooter, Marathon, and indie developer MegaCrit's highly anticipated sequel to its beloved rougelike deckbuilder, Slay the Spire 2.
When both games launched - as X (formerly Twitter) user Wario64 noted - their launch numbers for concurrent player counts on Steam were actually hand in hand, with both games reaching 80K+ concurrent players. Marathon would continue to peak at 88,337 concurrent players.
Slay the Spire 2, on the other hand, was just getting started. At the time of this writing, there are 420,395 players working towards slaying that spire for a second time on Steam right now. Now, in the case of Marathon, we can't know how many players are landing on Tau Ceti IV on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. It's likely that it's total player numbers are actually above 100K. Maybe they're even on par with Slay the Spire 2, we can't actually know for sure.
But going with what we can know through the snapshot that SteamDB offers, it's pretty clear which game PC players were more excited to get into. It also makes a sarcastic joke that MegaCrit made at Marathon's expense even funnier than anyone could have imagined.
Shortly after both games launched on Steam, MegaCrit quoted Bungie's launch post, saying, "Congratulations to the Marathon team on their launch! Don't let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out."
It's a harmless jab that the studio admits in a separate post to be just that, saying that "it wasn't supposed to be shade, we were being sarcastic," adding that the team did not know the game would blow up as much as it did. Of course, they couldn't have known that, but the fact that Slay the Spire 2 has continued to climb is both incredible to see for the actual indie team between the two games and makes their sarcastic jab all the more hilarious.
It looks even more impressive when you remember that Slay the Spire 2 is in early access, and by that mark is technically an unfinished game.
Now, it's worth noting that these are just launch numbers and that, once again, in Marathon's case, they don't offer the full picture. Steam concurrents are only really useful in small doses; they only offer so much information. But that doesn't make this snapshot any less impressive for MegaCrit.
Perhaps one day, Marathon will be as big as Slay the Spire 2. But not today.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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