The joke about Marathon hits harder now: Slay the Spire 2 devs didn’t expect to surpass Bungie’s shooter in player count

The card-based roguelike’s peak concurrent player count soared to nearly six times that of Marathon. Mega Crit admitted they never anticipated such an overwhelming turnout and are now playfully setting their sights on Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Both Slay the Spire 2 and Marathon made their debut on March 5. On launch day, the developers at Mega Crit shared an ironic congratulatory post directed at Bungie:

What started as a harmless jab quickly evolved into something far more significant. Within days, Slay the Spire 2 hit a staggering peak of 526,793 simultaneous players on Steam. To put that in perspective, Marathon’s all-time high reached 88,337—failing to capture even a sixth of the indie sequel’s momentum.

Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano later confessed that the team was stunned by the figures. He remarked that the initial joke now “lands a bit harder than intended,” as the developers truly didn’t expect to overshadow Bungie’s high-profile shooter in terms of active user numbers.

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Following the record-breaking surge, Mega Crit posted a new update on social media:

By leaning into this “obligatory humor,” Mega Crit might be testing their luck once again. Hollow Knight: Silksong launched to a peak of 587,150 players, but with Slay the Spire 2 already cementing itself as one of the most dominant indie titles in recent memory, it has every chance of challenging Team Cherry’s juggernaut.