97% of Marathon Players Skip Key Feature for 1 Reason

Marathon players are skipping this key feature, most likely for one major reason, and I think we all know what that is.

Last week, the highly anticipated Marathon, a new extraction shooter from Bungie, the creators of the Halo and Destiny series, graced us with its presence. However, it might be fair to say that its launch may not have gone according to plan.

For starters, Marathon launched without its endgame content, which is set to be released via a free update in the next week or so and is the latest high-profile game to adopt the ‘release now, fix later’ attitude.

Secondly, despite its standout visuals that let you instantly know this is Marathon, it’s an extraction shooter that feels very run-of-the-mill, or at least, that’s how I felt.

Players Are Seemingly Abandoning Marathon Already!

What’s more, by the looks of things, Marathon is struggling to keep players engaged, and that includes when the game has quite literally just begun. At launch, according to SteamDB, Marathon achieved an all-time concurrent player peak of 88,337, and in the last 24-hours, it dropped to 66,593.

It’s worth keeping in mind that those Marathon numbers only reflect the PC platform Steam and not consoles.

What’s more, as brought to our attention by Redditor TODG3, 97% of players who died in the tutorial either skipped it entirely or couldn't be bothered to return and finish it.

Why Are Marathon Players Skipping the Tutorial?

The most obvious reason could be simply that players aren't enjoying the tutorial, and that’s probably a sentiment that could be shared across most games. Unless it’s absolutely required, I feel most aren't necessary, especially the infamous Driver tutorial on the original PlayStation (if you know, you know).

“That checks out, given the conversation I've seen around this game,” replied Lostdog861.

“A buddy of mine got struck by five lightning strikes in a few seconds and died, in the tutorial,” claimed Odd-Classroom3515. What a shocking revelation!

“I had no problem in the server slam, but when I played at launch, the lightning strike went into the first building you enter and downed me. I ended up dying right away,” added xXCoconutHeadXx.

“Steam achievements aren’t that accurate, unfortunately,” said CanadaSoonFree, making a valid point that should be taken into consideration.

Marathon is out now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Will the game claw in better numbers with the Endgame content? Only time will tell.