How to preload Marathon

Marathon Rook frame standing over dead Destroyer shell — (Image credit: Bungie)

Marathon preloading is live, but there's not much time until it's out, so this is you final call to hopefully beat the launch queues. Regardless of if you're on PS5, or Xbox Series X, those that have pre-ordered Marathon can get it pre-installing right now, and it's a surprisingly small in terms of file size too! Either way, make sure you've got storage space to spare and check out how to preload Marathon below so that you're ready for launch.

How to start pre-installing Marathon

Marathon pre-install on Xbox — (Image credit: Bungie)

To preload Marathon, you need to have pre-ordered the game first as it isn't free to play. Then, starting the pre-install and getting it ready for the Marathon release time should be just the same as any other game based on your platform:

Steam: Select Marathon in your Library and click the blue "preload" button. Once the Steam client for the game is live, which should be at release time, Steam will begin the decryption process. Bear in mind you also need about 52GB of free space for this unpacking process too.
PS5: If you have auto-updates enabled, you might not have to do anything a your PS5 may have preloaded Marathon for you. If not, find Marathon in your library, select it and click on the countdown timer, then select 'download'.
Xbox Series X: Again, your Xbox may have pre-loaded Marathon for you if you have automatic updates enabled. Otherwise, you can search for and select Marathon in the store, select 'Manage / You own this', click on Marathon again to open the install page, then click install.

Despite Marathon being a AAA game and Destiny 2's absolutely colossal file size, Marathon's sits at 23-25GB depending on your platform. Assuming you're pre-load for Marathon has gone smoothly, you should be able to hop into the game as soon as the client goes live on your platform which should be at Marathon's release time of 6PM UTC. While the server slam seemed like a success, I would brace for all sorts of Marathon error codes and server issues for the first day as players flood in, so set expectations accordingly.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.

With contributions from

Will SawyerGuides Editor, GamesRadar+