Marathon Season 2 Free Trial: Play Free June 2–9

When Is Marathon Free to Play and What Is Season 2?

Marathon Season 2: Nightfall launches on June 2, 2026, and for exactly one week — June 2 through June 9 — Bungie is opening the game to all players at no cost. Available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, the Open Play Week gives anyone who has been on the fence a chance to jump in at the most pivotal moment in the game's young life.

Season 2 is named Nightfall, and it represents a significant creative pivot for Bungie's extraction shooter. According to Destructoid and GameSpot, the update brings the new Night Marsh map, the Sentinel Runner Shell player class, the Cradle character progression system, new weapons including the KKV-9SD submachine gun and D54 Battle Pistol, and a sweeping slate of sandbox changes based on player feedback from Season 1.

For those who try Marathon during the free week, any progress earned — runner levels, faction standing, and gear — will carry over to the full game if you decide to purchase it. The game will also be on sale across all platforms during the trial period, giving new players a direct path from curious visitor to invested runner.

What Is Night Marsh and How Does It Turn Marathon Into a Horror Game?

Night Marsh is a nighttime variant of Dire Marsh, the map Marathon launched with in Season 1. But calling it a reskin would be a significant understatement. As GamingBolt reports, Bungie's own blog states that Night Marsh is "built to be slower-paced than Day Marsh and plays more like a survival horror experience, with slightly fewer players and extra environmental challenges with navigating the darkness and threats within."

Visibility is the central challenge. Flashlights, Vector Rounds (which leave pools of light on impact and illuminate nearby enemies), and Vector Grenades for pinging threats in the dark are all new additions. Darksight scopes briefly highlight the world when aiming down sights, while Signal Flares can light up the sky at the cost of revealing your position to other runners. The horror atmosphere is reinforced by new enemy threats lurking in the Complex Control zone — described as resembling something between a Xenomorph and Slender Man.

To keep the player base from splitting too thin between day and night modes, Bungie will cycle Day Marsh and Night Marsh every 90 minutes. During the free trial week, however, both will be available around the clock. The new Sentinel Runner Shell adds to the horror-survival dynamic with its Defender System (auto-destroying incoming grenades and missiles), Snare Mine (immobilizing proximity traps), and Prey Tracker (short-range motion detection radar).

Is Marathon Going Free-to-Play Permanently?

No — and this distinction matters. As Kotaku and Destructoid both confirm, the June 2–9 window is a limited Open Play Week, not a permanent free-to-play conversion. Bungie has made no announcement of a pricing model change. The free week is a deliberate push to attract a new wave of players as the studio looks for a rebound after Season 1 struggled to retain a large audience beyond its core fanbase.

The timing carries extra weight given that Bungie's other live-service game, Destiny 2, is receiving its final content update on June 9 — the same day the Marathon free trial ends. With its decade-old flagship wrapping up, Marathon is now Bungie's primary ongoing game and needs to prove it can hold a crowd. The Season 2 free week, alongside discounted pricing during the trial, is the studio's clearest signal yet that it is fighting hard for Marathon's survival.