Did Bungie's Strategy Work? Marathon Soars on Steam Sales After Journalist Reviews

Bungie's extraction shooter, Marathon, experienced a significant resurgence in attention following the release of professional press reviews.

Marathon launched on March 5, 2026. Prior to its release, the studio requested that journalists withhold their reviews until a specific key content update became available. This moment arrived on March 17 with the deployment of update 1.0.5.

The patch revamped game balance, introduced new mechanics and abilities, and added the high-level "Cryo Archive" location. Despite these improvements, the game initially struggled, continuing to lose ground on Steam and falling to 77th place in the global sales chart by March 26.

The situation dramatically changed after March 27, when a wave of reviews from Western publications began to appear online. Against this backdrop, Marathon rapidly recovered its position, first climbing to 32nd place, then to 17th. As of the time of this report, the game holds the 22nd spot in Steam's worldwide sales chart.

Over the past few days, the project had no other significant news besides the publication of these reviews, strongly suggesting a direct link between the surge in interest and their release. Critics generally received the game positively. The PlayStation 5 version garnered an 81 score on Metacritic based on 40 reviews, while the PC version achieved 80 points from 33 reviews. User reviews on Steam are also "Very Positive," with an 86% approval rating from nearly 31,000 reviews.

Thus, Bungie's strategy of delaying review publications appears to have successfully served as a tool for re-engaging the audience post-release, demonstrating that players continue to value critical assessments from the press.