Marathon Is Getting a Full PvE Mode in Season 3, and Bungie Knows PvP Alone Isn’t Enough

Marathon PvE mode is coming in Season 3 as Bungie expands beyond PvP, using Vault Breaker feedback to guide its next major update later this year.

Bungie launched Marathon on March 5 as an extraction shooter built around tense PvPvE runs, but its player numbers have dropped sharply since release. SteamDB recorded an all-time peak of 88,337 concurrent players on March 6. Today, the tracker showed a 24-hour peak of 5,782, more than 93% below that launch record. Those figures don’t cover PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S.

The studio has already started testing ways to lower the pressure. Sponsored Survival offered a PvP-lite queue during June’s Open Play Week, while Vault Breaker, the upcoming experimental PvE mode, will remove rival crews entirely for a limited run from July 21 to August 4. Bungie has also admitted that Marathon can feel grindy, overwhelming for newcomers, and awkward for solo or duo players.

Now Bungie has confirmed that the PvE experiment won’t end with one temporary event.

A Full Marathon PvE Mode Is Coming in Season 3

Bungie says it is working on a full Marathon PvE mode scheduled to arrive during Season 3. The developer confirmed the plan in its Mid-Season 2 Update Preview released earlier today, writing that Vault Breaker feedback and data will help “as we continue to work towards our full PvE mode, arriving in Season 3.”

No mission count, permanent activity structure, reward model, or exact release date has been announced. Marathon Season 3 begins September 22, but Bungie hasn’t said whether the mode will launch that day or later in the season.

For now, Vault Breaker is the test bed. It sends solo players, duos, and trios through increasingly difficult vaults in Cryo Archive, with progression carried across multiple runs through Vault Data.

Marathon was sold as a PvPvE extraction shooter, yet Bungie’s post-launch plans now include PvP-lite queues, a temporary PvE-only event, and a full PvE mode. That doesn’t mean the studio is abandoning competitive extraction.

It means the original loop isn’t holding enough players by itself, and Bungie is widening the game before the audience gets any smaller. Sensible. Also something that probably needed to be in the plan before launch.

Season 3 will also rework Marathon’s early-game experience, including a larger Perimeter zone, onboarding changes, contract revisions, a new Runner shell, and more gear. Bungie appears to be treating the season as a broader repair job rather than a normal content drop.

Would a permanent PvE mode bring you back to Marathon, or does the game need deeper changes before Season 3? Let us know in the comments.