While many expected Bungie's Marathon to dominate Steam this week, Slay the Spire 2 has unexpectedly quadrupled the extraction shooter's concurrent player count on Valve's PC platform.
Casey Yano, co-founder of MegaCrit (the studio behind Slay the Spire), expressed surprise on social media, admitting he never anticipated Slay the Spire 2 would surpass Marathon in concurrent users. At publication time, the sequel boasts over 350,000 concurrent players on Steam, placing it among the platform's most-played titles—trailing only PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2.
Marathon, in contrast, reached a peak of 88,337 concurrent players at launch, a number Bungie hopes will grow during its first weekend.
The discussion stemmed from a tweet by the official MegaCrit account on Thursday, March 5, which has been viewed over half a million times. "Congratulations to the Marathon team on their launch!" it read. "Don't let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out."
Some interpreted this as a dig at Marathon, which faces high expectations for Bungie amid recent studio challenges under Sony's ownership. In response, both MegaCrit and Yano clarified their intent.
"This seems a bit meaner than it was intended," Yano explained. "To be fair, I didn't think we'd actually pass Marathon in concurrent users."
Replying to a user who called it "A SHADE FOR THE CENTURIES," MegaCrit added: "It wasn't supposed to be shade, we were being sarcastic 😭 did not know we'd blow up quite to the degree that we did…" The situation ended amicably, with Bungie community manager Cozmo offering congratulations in return.
Beyond outperforming Marathon, Slay the Spire 2 is setting new records for roguelikes on Steam. It has surpassed Mewgenics to achieve the highest concurrent player count ever for the genre, which recently edged out Hades 2 last month.
This marks a stunning and unforeseen debut for the long-awaited sequel to the beloved deckbuilder roguelike Slay the Spire, which earned a 9/10 review in 2019. At the time, critics praised it for blending the best elements of deckbuilding games, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers into a fresh and satisfying experience.
Currently available only on PC in early access, Slay the Spire 2 is likely to receive console versions upon full release.
