This New Game Is Destroying The Soulslike Genre's Player Count
By 813 Staff
Studio executives are responding to This New Game Is Destroying The Soulslike Genre's Player Count, according to Kotaku (@Kotaku) (in the last 24 hours).
Source: https://x.com/Kotaku/status/2031109502351610352
The battle for dominance in the live-service gaming arena is a brutal, multi-billion dollar war of attrition, where player attention is the ultimate currency. In this landscape, the sudden shift of a major influencer’s allegiance can send shockwaves through development studios and publisher boardrooms. This week, that shift arrived when the prominent gaming outlet Kotaku (@Kotaku) declared that Bungie’s long-awaited extraction shooter, Marathon, had dethroned FromSoftware’s Elden Ring Nightreign as its staff’s “new multiplayer obsession.” For an industry watching Marathon’s rocky development cycle, this public endorsement is more than a review; it’s a potential lifeline.
The tweet, posted on March 9, 2026, represents a significant moment for Bungie and its parent company, Sony. Marathon, a revival of a classic franchise reimagined as a PvP-focused extraction title, has faced intense scrutiny. Industry insiders say the project has undergone several behind-the-scenes reboots, with pressure mounting to deliver a hit that can anchor Sony’s live-service ambitions. Elden Ring Nightreign, the massively successful expansion that introduced its own acclaimed colosseum-based PvP, has been a formidable competitor for player hours. For a respected outlet like Kotaku to publicly pivot its sustained playtime from that established juggernaut to a new, unproven entity is a powerful signal to the core gaming community.
The numbers, however, tell a different story about the long road ahead. While influencer buzz is crucial for initial uptake, Marathon’s success will be measured in monthly active users and retention metrics over quarters, not days. The extraction shooter genre is notoriously challenging to balance and maintain, requiring a relentless content pipeline to keep players engaged. Bungie’s expertise with Destiny 2 gives it a proven track record, but Marathon is a different beast entirely. The Kotaku mention will likely drive a surge of downloads and concurrent players during its current access period, providing the title with its first true stress test at scale.
What happens next is a tense waiting game. The immediate focus will be on parsing player data from this influx and monitoring whether the initial fascination translates into sustained daily logins. Behind the scenes, Bungie’s developers are undoubtedly scrutinizing feedback on map design, progression systems, and the all-important “feel” of gunplay. The real test will come in the weeks following this honeymoon period, when the novelty wears off and the grind sets in. For now, Marathon has secured a vital win in the battle for perception, but the war for a permanent place in the gaming rotation is just beginning.
