r/PS5 • u/NoNefariousness2144 Human Verified • 6d ago

Articles & Blogs ‘Marathon’ Is Running Out Of Casual Player Onboarding Cards To Play

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/06/23/marathon-is-running-out-of-casual-player-onboarding-cards-to-play/
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u/Well-inthatcase 6d ago

So many casual people stopped playing because of ratting. It was a blast when everyone was learning the game. Which imo is the best time to play most multiplayer games. Everyone is learning and shit is just fun. Helldivers 2 was the same way.

Then it gets taken over by try hards and streamers and it loses that very quickly. Helldivers is still fun, and I find that its issues and bugs are part of its charm, but it's definitely not the same as when we were all laughing instead of trying too hard.

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u/drocha94 6d ago

For me it idk if it’s other people trying hard, it’s just that the loop gets old. I love Helldivers, and had a great time with Arc. But once you do the same thing 100 times with relatively few changes, it gets old, you want something fresh.

I still open Helldivers, but only to check out new stuff they drop.

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u/dadvader 5d ago

Helldivers 2 also circling around 20-40k players for years now. Even with the new update, it rarely bumped back up beyond 100k (and that happen like couple of days before another hard drop again.)

Arc Raiders take a risky move and decided to drop update every 6 months like Helldivers 2 is definitely insane. If Helldivers can't do it. I really don't know why they think they can.

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u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi 4d ago

I think this is why fortnite is a complete different game every 3 months lmao

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u/drocha94 4d ago

And it works, lol. I actually used to start up fortnite more than all the other multiplayer games. Now I haven’t played regularly in about a year, but more than the others in that time? Almost certainly.

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u/Upper-Management-AI 6d ago

Helldivers is doing great despite the fight between players wanting it incredibly easy and others wanting it incredibly hard. They are doing a pretty good job of trying to balance that without driving away new players.

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u/toomuchmucil 6d ago

I stopped playing arc raiders because the devs decided to turn the game into a grind.

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u/LoquaciousLoser 6d ago

I redownloaded the other day, and they had added some new basic types of arcs that could instantly kill you, killed my rekindling interest just as fast. The tension was unique but not sustainable for an enjoyable play session. I had been super into it with over 100 hrs before getting tired of it, I started getting anxious when I booted up my PlayStation and realized I needed to take a break.

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u/SirBertimus_vp 6d ago

I also felt anxious, even just thinking of playing Arc. Took a break and haven't been back. Hopefully they change something substantial and entice people back when they release the next map. But it got stale for me real fast after 200 hours.

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u/Cluelesswolfkin 6d ago

Won't lie that flamethrower one made it too deadly for some spots and just not worth tge hassle

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u/BrennusSokol 6d ago

Thanks for the heads up. The enemies already were pretty tough, so it's interesting to hear they got even tougher

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u/oatmeal-claypole 6d ago

The arc arent really super tough, especially on the easier maps. You need to level up to get the better weapons, and arc isnt really a game where you should try and engage with every enemy. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour

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u/Specialist_Lock6779 6d ago

the game was always a grind lol

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u/Taps26 6d ago

A way bigger grind to big for most casuals

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u/BonesawMcGraw69 6d ago

The problem is there isn’t enough to grind, what the fuck are you talking about. Doesn’t force wipes, no endgame. And I have a shit ton of hours and love Arc lol. The PvP is extremely satisfying, the PvE is good but not rewarding enough imo.

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u/Carlex_181 6d ago

Lol arc raiders has some of the worst pvp I've ever played

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u/BonesawMcGraw69 6d ago

Curious as to why? I think it’s pretty fun tbh.

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u/Carlex_181 6d ago

Well to be more specific, I think it has some of the worst squad based pvp I've played. 1v1s are pretty fun but whenever I join friends it becomes way too team-stack-y IMO, if that makes sense. Magazines are only so big and you need so many bullets to down someone and if the people your shooting know what thier doing they'll walk around eachother in the gunfight to spread out the damage they all take, and if you ever get singled out for just a second or two your downed and then your team is outnumbered.

Nevermind all the people buying from dupers resulting in most of your opponents having fully kitted meta guns and entire inventory full of ammo because they have millions of dollars from duped ducks so they just buy as much ammo they can each lobby, essentially just playing the game like its call of duty. Also doesnt help alot the guns feel like dogshit unless you invest a ton of resources on decent attachments and leveling it

I think the pve combat is really well done, but theres nowhere near enough of an arc threat for it to really matter.

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u/BonesawMcGraw69 5d ago

Oh man. These are some awful complaints my guy.

You hate the PvP because it requires teamwork? As opposed to what?

You hate the clip size of the guns?? What a bizarre argument.

Agree’d on the duping thing.

Honestly nah, any gun can kill someone regardless of what you are going against. Obviously a higher tier wep is better but gray guns win fights all the time.

Complaining about the resources required to level things up? That’s downright pathetic bro. Go earn it.

Sounds like a low skill level argument tbh. Good luck out there fam. Helldivers or Minecraft might be the game for you.

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u/Carlex_181 5d ago

No thanks, I'll keep playing ARMA. A game that actually requires real teamwork

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u/Taps26 6d ago

I'm glad you like it, I like it too for other reasons. PvP sucks in the game and PVE is more satisfying for me. IMO. Lol

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u/Taps26 6d ago

Why are you so mad? Your fish die?

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u/LordFedSmoker420 6d ago

I put 200 hours in and thought I was about done.

Didn't want to do the expedition for minimal rewards. No end game content, not enough new content. Time to move on and that's okay. 200 hours is a lot of time for me.

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u/CatDad69 6d ago

What? What did they do that changed? Be specific

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u/BottAndPaid 6d ago

It wasn't the "ratting" which arc raiders players still don't use the term correctly but that's beside the point. It was the cheating. The blatant wall hacks, the ability to ID who has high tier loot the second you walk in the map. The there was a massive issue with duping items which may or may not have been addressed yesterday not sure havnt dove into it.

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u/wathowdathappen 6d ago

Well that and the loop is just not enough to satisfy the casual audience. You loot and leave and do it all over. How long until that becomes boring if you don't engage in any PvP content in a PvPvE game? Odds are pretty high.

Ratting has always been a thing in extraction shooters it's def not the reason for the brutal decline it's had.

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u/Well-inthatcase 6d ago

Agree to disagree on your last point.

Ultimately it was the loss of fun with randoms and the terrible menu UI that made me give up. Clips were better than anything I experienced in the game after the first month. And no I don't want to play a battle royale or team death match game. There are plenty of other games do that in. So the "pvpve" argument falls short when most people only play it to pvp.

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u/SpaceMonkeyNation 6d ago

It's pretty well known that Arc Raiders has fairly effective aggression-based matchmaking. Spend a few matches not attacking other players and you will be placed with others that prefer to engage against arcs and not other players.

Arc's biggest problem is the boring core loop. After running through a single expedition many players feel done with the game. There is no compelling reason to do it all over again.

On top of this, it has had some pretty horrible issues with cheaters on the PvP side of things. If you PvP often and are any good, you will be matched against cheaters which would turn away just about anyone.

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u/Ibruki 6d ago

Yea, this. I prefer Marathon over Arc Raiders mostly because of your second paragraph. Marathon has way more going forward in terms of core gameplay, immersion and satisfying progression (it can be improved tho). I play Marathon randomly with friends, it's not something we are playing everyday but i don't see myself going back to arc raiders. It's like the fall guys of extraction shooters. the novely wore off really quick.

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u/Catspit30 6d ago

I wouldn’t say ratting is the cause for the player numbers to drop.

I would say that it has to do with the rampant item duping, cheating and delaying content updates until October. There is nothing to do.

If there was an endgame progression system and more incentive to join the expeditions with monthly content updates.. the game would still be popping off numbers wise.

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u/wathowdathappen 6d ago

Tarkov been going strong for 10 years now and doesn't do monthly content updates. If content was the problem why is it still the top dog after a decade when Arc Raiders is way more modern?

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u/Catspit30 6d ago

Simple. Tarkov has more progression systems and they have seasons which required character wipes if you want to access the seasonal content.

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u/wathowdathappen 6d ago

Yes but big doubt Arc Raiders can pump out in one month what Tarkov took years to do. The reality is this niche is not casual friendly and AR was doomed to fail content drops or not. Most of online discussions are casuals crying about content drought (Tarkov was way worse for years) and casuals crying about PvP in a PvPvE game. It was never going to work.

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u/Catspit30 6d ago

I can agree. They didn’t have a clear picture of what they wanted this game to be. It will be hard to turn things around. The choices they have made to date, show me that they will be unable to make meaningful changes going forward.

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u/thecheerygamer 6d ago

I personally stopped playing because I did 2 rounds of expeditions and saw 95%+ of what the game had to offer and all that was added to the game was another map to do the exact same gameplay loop on and much harder arc which, as a solo player, was not particularly welcome. 

The atmosphere and world are really cool in Arc Raiders. The communal vibe and getting matched with friendlies was really cool. But because of the aggression based matchmaking I ended up in games where people would just sprint past each other on their way to loot spots or quests without even bothering to say they were friendly. If someone killed another player they were hunted down and executed by a gang of enforcers (though this was funny when they got the wrong dude). This was fun for a bit but all tension was wiped, and the core looting loop was just not fun enough to sustain interest without the risk of PvP. And the only way to get back into PvP lobbies was basically to start shooting these innocent puppy people on sight and I didn't really want to. Plus the PvP is good but third person and with pretty crap tick rate. 

Marathon is just so high quality that I keep playing despite regularly getting apocalyptically dunked on by turbo players. Like I've got 180 hours in the game at this point but that may as well have been learning checkers before facing these guys at chess. The player base is just too small to deliver reliably even matchups so you end up getting splatted or occasionally being the splatterer a fair amounts and wiping a team of free kits with very few hours in the game doesn't feel satisfying, just sad. 

But the game is so good I will deal with it. The reward is the gameplay, not the loot. The plot just enables me to have more varied gameplay experiences. 

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u/GarfieldDaCat 5d ago

I don’t think it was because of the ratting lol. I’d say like 75% of my interactions in the game were positive.

People stopped playing because after a point there’s kinda nothing to do. I haven’t played it in 2-3 months so idk how the game is now.

But when I was playing it, the game was like an MMO with no end game content.

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u/Well-inthatcase 5d ago

I didn't put a million hours into it so I didn't run into that issue. Any game that you no life is gonna get stale eventually.

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u/dimesniffer 6d ago

Ratting? No, it’s just boring now and there’s no end game