TL;DR: Slay the Spire 2 launched into Steam Early Access on March 5, 2026 and peaked at over 430,000 concurrent players — more than four times Marathon’s launch-day peak of 88,337. Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano had posted a cheeky congratulations to the Marathon team before launch, and is now walking it back after the numbers came in. The game also broke the all-time Steam record for deckbuilders, beat Hades 2, Balatro, and Vampire Survivors, and briefly crashed the Steam storefront.
It was meant to be a lighthearted joke. It became a headline.
Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano has issued an apology of sorts after a tongue-in-cheek congratulatory post aimed at the Marathon development team turned out to land harder than anyone at the studio had anticipated — because Slay the Spire 2 didn’t just pass Bungie’s new extraction shooter in Steam concurrent users. It buried it.
The Tweet That Aged Badly (in the Best Way)
When Slay the Spire 2 and Marathon were confirmed to be launching on the same day, Mega Crit’s official X account leaned into the awkward timing with a bit of playful bravado. The post read: “Congratulations to the Marathon team on their launch! Don’t let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out.”
It was cheeky, sure — but the implicit assumption was that Marathon, a heavily marketed AAA extraction shooter from the storied developers behind Halo and Destiny, would comfortably outperform a $24.99 indie deckbuilder in raw concurrent players. That assumption did not survive contact with launch day.
After the numbers came in, Yano addressed the post directly on their personal social media account: “This seems a bit meaner than it was intended…. To be fair I didn’t think we’d actually pass Marathon in concurrent users.”
Relatable, and very funny.
The Numbers Tell a Staggering Story
The gap between the two games on launch day was not close. Marathon drew a peak of 88,337 concurrent players on Steam — a figure that was enough to make it the third-best-selling new game on Steam at the time, trailing Resident Evil Requiem, so it’s not as though Bungie’s game underperformed in isolation. It just had the misfortune of launching on the same day as something extraordinary.
Slay the Spire 2 peaked at 282,314 concurrent players on Steam during its Early Access launch day, with numbers continuing to grow in the 12 hours following release. The article’s original concurrent figure of 430,456 reflects the game’s continued climb as the day went on. The launch made Slay the Spire 2 the highest-peak concurrent deckbuilder in Steam history, surpassing titles like Balatro, Hades 2, and Vampire Survivors. It also sits as a close second only to Elden Ring Nightreign in the roguelike genre’s all-time concurrent rankings on Steam.
The Steam storefront buckled at launch, with stalled store pages and purchases lost in limbo — the digital commerce chaos lasting about half an hour during the Early Access window. When an indie game crashes Steam, you know it’s having a good day.
For context on just how far the series has come: the original Slay the Spire reached a peak player count of 57,025 — a number set just a few months ago during a Steam sale. The sequel surpassed that figure within its first hour of release.
Why Did Slay the Spire 2 Explode Like This?
A few factors converged. The original Slay the Spire spent years quietly becoming one of the most beloved games in the roguelike and deckbuilder genres, building a fiercely loyal community that had been waiting for a sequel since the first game’s full launch in 2019. Word of mouth drove that fanbase to an almost unprecedented level of Day One organization.
Mega Crit also launched the Early Access build with a brand-new four-player co-op mode — a first for the series — which significantly expanded the game’s appeal beyond solo players and likely brought in groups of friends who might have otherwise waited for a full release. Owners of the first Slay the Spire received a $2.50 discount, and a bundle priced at $28 helped boost early demand.
The studio has confirmed that Slay the Spire 2 will remain in Early Access for one to two years before a full launch — meaning the player counts we’re seeing now represent an incomplete game. The ceiling for this one is genuinely hard to predict.
It’s worth noting that the competitive landscape was packed: Slay the Spire 2 also had to contend with Resident Evil Requiem, Marathon, and Pokemon Pokopia all launching in the same window, making its chart dominance even more remarkable.
What This Means for Indies — and for AAA
There’s a bigger story here worth acknowledging. Marathon had Bungie’s brand, a years-long marketing campaign, and a multiplatform release spanning PS5 and Xbox Series X|S alongside PC. Slay the Spire 2 had a devoted fanbase, a new co-op mode, and a $24.99 price tag.
The result shouldn’t be read as a failure for Marathon — 88,000 concurrent players is a respectable launch by most measures, and its console audience isn’t captured in Steam figures at all. But it does reinforce something the industry keeps relearning: when indie developers build deep, genuine relationships with their players over years, the payoff can look like this.
This isn’t an isolated incident either. Balatro, Hades 2, Vampire Survivors — roguelikes are more popular than ever, with even games from small studios putting up bigger numbers than ambitious AAA projects. The genre has become one of the most reliable commercial forces in PC gaming, and Slay the Spire 2 is now its reigning benchmark.
Wondering how AI-assisted development tools might be shaping the next generation of both indie and AAA games? Check out our deep dive on Microsoft’s Xbox AI Game Helper Patent.
Casey Yano’s Apology Is the Right Move — and a Funny One
It’s worth appreciating the good humor on display here. Yano’s admission — “I didn’t think we’d actually pass Marathon in concurrent users” — is the kind of honest, human moment that makes indie developers so easy to root for. The original post was clearly made in good fun, with the expectation that the numbers would make the joke obviously self-deprecating. The fact that the joke became a statement of fact instead is just a genuinely delightful outcome.
Marathon will have its own story to tell over the coming months, particularly as its seasonal content rolls out and its console playerbase grows. And Slay the Spire 2 will keep climbing through Early Access, adding content, fixing bugs, and slowly becoming whatever its full 1.0 version turns out to be.
For now though? The spire stands unchallenged.
For more on what’s launching and succeeding in gaming right now, read our coverage of the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced official confirmation and full franchise roadmap.