Marathon is shaping up to be one of 2026’s biggest releases. The recent Server Slam, designed to test the game’s online infrastructure under a high-stress environment, saw almost 150,000 players jump in on Steam alone. Its launch is shaping up to be far bigger than that.
Despite some discontent around the pricing, developer morale dropping to a point where it had “never been worse”, plagiarism accusations, and multiple rounds of layoffs at Bungie, sentiment has been restored, and the hype around the title has returned.
In fact, players are so excited about the game that Bungie has issued a warning that there “may be” server queues on launch day — so you’d better get online quickly.
Marathon Players Could Be Facing Server Issues On Its Launch Day
In a new FAQ posted on its social media channels, Bungie warned that, because “Launch days are busy,” the game may face “brief queues or updates”.
Its full message reads: “Launch days are busy! Brief queues or updates may occur, and we’ll communicate status if we need to perform maintenance via the BungieServerStatus Twitter and Bluesky accounts. We’ll also share updates in our community Discord.”
Launch days are busy! Brief queues or updates may occur,
Now, queues in big multiplayer games like this are nothing new. Late last year, both Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 faced them at launch, and prior to that, games like Elden Ring Nightreign and Helldivers 2 suffered from the issue.
One of the best ways to beat these queues is to pre-install the game, which you can do now, and be there as servers go live. Of course, you’ll be contributing to those long queues, but at least you should be near the front.
In its FAQ, Bungie revealed the game’s global launch times, so you know what time you need to be ready for. You can check them all out below:
- Los Angeles: 10:00 AM PDT
- New York: 1:00 PM EDT
- Rio de Janeiro: 3:00 PM BRT
- London: 6:00 PM GMT
- Berlin: 7:00 PM CET
- —INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE — MARCH 6—
- Seoul: 3:00 AM KST
- Tokyo: 3:00 AM JST
- Sydney: 5:00 AM AEDT
Good luck out there, gamers!
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
