I dug into the numbers and Xbox users are putting more time into this Sony game than PS5 players. Here’s why it surprised me.
Marathon, a first-party PlayStation title, has achieved unexpected engagement dominance on Xbox, according to newly released Circana data for the week ending April 18, 2026. The analysis reveals that Xbox players are spending more average hours playing Marathon than their PS5 and Steam counterparts, marking a surprising disconnect between the game’s platform ownership and where it’s generating the most playtime engagement.
The report, compiled by Mat Piscatella from Circana, focuses on average hours played per user rather than overall popularity or total player counts. By this metric, Marathon topped the engagement charts on Xbox in the U.S. market, indicating that Xbox users who have picked up the game are investing significantly more time into it compared to players on other platforms.
This finding highlights an interesting dynamic in modern gaming engagement patterns. While developed for PlayStation’s ecosystem, the data suggests Xbox’s player base may be engaging with the game at higher rates when they do play it. This could reflect various factors, including the game’s appeal to specific gaming communities or play styles that resonate particularly well with Xbox’s user base.
The revelation underscores the complexity of modern gaming metrics, where traditional measures of success like sales figures or active player counts don’t tell the complete story. Average engagement time per player offers a more nuanced view of how deeply different gaming communities are invested in a title, regardless of the platform it was originally intended for.