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Sweet 16 live updates, scores: No. 1 Duke takes on No. 5 St. John's; UConn, Notre Dame advance with both NCAA tournaments back in full swing
Connecticut officer fired after shooting man in mental health crisis as others tried to de-escalate
Mayor of Hartford has fired a white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis nine times
Caleb Foster leads Duke past St. John's, into Elite Eight
Point guard Caleb Foster suffered a right foot fracture less than three weeks ago, but was back in action for the Blue Devils against St. John's.
Keir Starmer: Where Did It All Go Wrong? review – is the PM just useless at politics or is it something more sinister?
Westminster insiders try to get to the bottom of Starmer’s awful unpopularity and frequent blunders – but fail to consider less palatable possibilities
UK Sports Network Coverage of Kentucky Softball vs Georgia
Listen to UK Sports Network Radio Cover
Sony to hike PS5 prices by $100 as AI and Iran war push up memory chip costs
Updated prices of PlayStation 5 consoles to go into effect on 2 April as electronics makers face rising cost pressures
Reform candidate in Wales steps down after apparent Nazi salute
Party announces Corey Edwards’ decision to quit Senedd election campaign on grounds of mental health
New dean of the College of Health Sciences announced
UK Provost Robert DiPaola has named Phillip Gribble dean of the College of Health Sciences, pending Board of Trustees approval.
Torbay health partnership ends due to £34m funding gap
Torbay Council will take back responsibility for social care from April 2027.
Duke vs. St. John's odds, March Madness predictions: 2026 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 picks from proven model
SportsLine's model has revealed its St. John's vs. Duke picks for the NCAA Tournament 2026 Sweet 16 game on Friday
Scientists film whale giving birth while other whales work together to help her
Female named Rounder was surrounded by family members and others as she was about to give birth to her second calf
Brian Cox says physics faces ‘unquantifiable’ threat under punishing funding cuts
Cuts of nearly 70% may force university departments to close and damage UK’s research progress, senior scientists say
Lakers Fans Upset Over Luka Doncic Update on Friday
Los Angeles Lakers fans are not happy about the latest Luka Doncic update.
Does Saka Deserve More Empathy?
First of all, I should clarify that I have always viewed Bukayo Saka as overrated. A good player, but not world-class, as some Gooners would have you believe. Certainly, he is young enough to develop ...
Bears LT Braxton Jones opens up about last season's benching
Chicago Bears left tackle Braxton Jones recently discussed his benching last season and how he's using it as motivation.
Inspired eats, live entertainment and stunning ocean views await in Key West
From historical sites to iconic eateries, find it all in beautiful Key West.
Cabinet Office to ask Mandelson to provide messages from personal phone
Exchanges about US ambassador appointment may be lost after McSweeney’s phone was stolen
Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
Exclusive: Research finds sharp rise in models evading safeguards and destroying emails without permission
“Night and day”: Adventuring through childhood with newfound immune systems
This article discusses the significant impact of an accelerated FDA-approved gene therapy on children with severe leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I. Families share how their lives have transformed from chronic hospital visits to thriving, healthy lifestyles following the treatment at UCLA.
'We don't want sports to be male-dominated', Jersey charity says
Jersey Sport says teenage girls on the island are 6% less likely to be active than boys their age.
Trump EPA relied on industry science to weaken formaldehyde cancer rules, documents show
Papers reveal how chemical lobby influenced policy, reversing Biden-era limits on a common carcinogen
Get to know Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mary Spicuzza
Mary Spicuzza, a Milwaukee native, has been covering politics and other issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel since 2015.
Where to watch LSU vs. Duke in March Madness Sweet 16: Time, TV Channel
The No. 2 LSU Lady Tigers face the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils in the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament. Here's how to see all the action.
Billy Bragg calls for big turnout at London march against far right
Musician urges public to send clear message at what is expected to be UK’s biggest ever multicultural rally
See Louisiana’s ‘Vote for the Crook’ election through the eyes of 8 new Hall of Fame inductees
The eight inductees to the 2026 class of the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame played a role in the epic 1991 governor’s race between Edwin Edwards and David Duke.
Sports quiz of the week: a fight, a joke, a gift and a Liverpool legend
Have you been following the big stories in football, rugby union, snooker, baseball and athletics?
Oil shrugs off Trump’s latest Iran extension; UK consumers feel ‘ripple of fear’ from the conflict
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Dovbyk’s season might not be over after all
A cursed season for Artem Dovbyk. The Ukrainian striker required surgery in Finland at the end of January for a myotendinous tear in his left thigh, and his return remains a huge unknown. However, con...
Singapore denies Malaysian scholar entry over political activism
Fadiah Nadwa Fikri urged some in Singapore to "adopt her brand of radical advocacy", authorities say.
Saints plan UK-first memorial wall for fans' ashes
The wall could be built this summer at Northampton Saints' ground, subject to planning permission.
Russia's oil is beating global prices, padding the Kremlin's war chest
The shift marks a turnaround for Russia, which had been forced to sell oil at steep discounts following Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Flyers heed Tocchet's advice in blowout of Blackhawks
The Flyers gave Rick Tocchet what he wanted as they blew out the Blackhawks, 5-1, for a big home win Thursday night.
Three charts that are warning signs flashing for Trump on Iran war
As gas prices rise, Trump's approval rating is heading into politically dangerous territory.
Anthropic tweaks timed usage limits to discourage Claude demand during peak hours
: AI biz makes some Claude conversations more costly to manage capacity
AMD’s new desktop CPU oozes cache out of all 16 cores
: Turns out massive caches are good for more than games. House of Zen boasts 5-13% perf boost over prior-gen part
Cardinals Hosting Inaugural Women's Flag Football Championship Presented By Dignity Health
Top West Coast collegiate teams compete for GSAC Title
LPD: Several businesses added to list of places people may have been recorded illegally
These locations include Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, Target, Plato’s Closet, Mission Thrift, Millie’s Café, and The Muse Coffee Company.
Trump describes UK aircraft carriers as ‘toys’ in latest anti-Nato jibe
Starmer tells MPs he will not react to US president’s repeated insults amid Iran war
Parties launch Holyrood campaigns against backdrop of voter indecision
Change is on offer across the political spectrum, but no one knows whether apathy or tactical voting will prevail
Sperm get lost in space, Australian research into microgravity impacts suggests
Study into how fertilisation could work in space finds sperm may get disorientated when trying to find an egg
Could Markwayne Mullin’s tenure at DHS change the agency?
Homeland Security and ICE were heavily scrutinized during Kristi Noem’s term
How are schools divvying up money between sports in modern era? Here's an inside look at Duke's approach
2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow
Department Chair, Professor Alexander Spokoyny has been selected as a 2025 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition of his distinguished contributions in main group and organometallic chemistry and academic community engagement and leadership. AAAS is the world’s largest general-scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Spokoyny is among the 449 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. Four of the new fellows are UCLA faculty members. The new Fellows will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., in late May 2026. Read more about the new AAAS Fellows here. AAAS Fellows in the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry are Professors Kendall Houk (1988), Paul Weiss (1999), Richard Kaner (2000), David Eisenberg and Todd Yeates (2001), Juli Feigon (2002), Miguel Garcia-Garibay and Steven Clarke (2007), Heather Maynard, Carla Koehler, Xiangfeng Duan and Neil Garg (2018), Paula Diaconescu and Thomas Mason (2019), Joseph Loo (2021), and Yi Tang (2022). Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
Lukaku faces consequences after infuriating Napoli and Conte
Sky Sport Italia reports that Romelu Lukaku could receive a hefty fine for remaining in Belgium without the club’s approval, but the striker will likely face consequences on the pitch as well.Lukaku...
Women's Olympic sports limited to biological females from 2028
The women's category of Olympic sports will be limited to biological females from 2028, says the International Olympic Committee.
Clean shoes and gold coins: Kehoe students start new business
Four Hillsdale students have started a shoe cleaning business as part of their Kehoe Fellowship project. The Kehoe Fellowship gives students a practical, hands-on experience in entrepreneurship, according to Jen Lutz, the fellowship’s director. Freshman Russel Mangiapane and sophomores Ianna Chan, Ashley Luke, and Rylan Conley started the St. Nick’s Shoe Cleaning Service at the...
Samsung Brings One UI 8.5 Beta Programme to More Galaxy Devices
Samsung is expanding the One UI 8.5 beta programme to additional Galaxy devices. Introduced with the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z
Is New York's cannabis business really flying high?
Five years after it was legalised, cannabis is seemingly everywhere in New York, but business owners say that many legitimate businesses are struggling.
In Rural Ukraine, Basic Health Care Is a Casualty of War
Elderly people in isolated villages are going without medicine. One woman said she hadn’t seen a doctor in four years.
Resistance movement: how a play about penicillin brought the arts, science and politics together
Championed by a former chief medical officer, Lifeline is both a musical following Alexander Fleming’s discovery of the first antibiotic and a warning about the threat of superbugs in the present day
Fears net zero is ‘next Brexit’ as oil crisis fuels political climate divide
Rising energy bills give Reform and Tories opening to attack net zero while government hesitant to make case for clean energy
BBC Sport weekly quiz: How many Premier League Golden Boots has Mohamed Salah won?
How much attention have you paid to what's happened in the world of sport over the past seven days?
Pupils tackle sports gender stereotypes with Guernsey athletes
La Houguette School have been running assemblies which aim to show sport is for everyone.
'No good choice' for GPs as child mental health demand 'skyrockets'
GP says long waits for support mean some doctors feel forced to prescribe medication outside of guidelines.
Ipswich paramedic died after struggling with her mental health
A coroner says Rebecca McLellan, from Ipswich, struggled after her bipolar disorder diagnosis.
WHO warns of health crisis ‘unfolding in real time’ across Middle East
Hostilities should halt and healthcare facilities must be treated as ‘safe havens’, WHO’s regional chief has said
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, NBA commissioner Adam Silver address Giannis' health, tanking
Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers provided a health update on Giannis Antetokounmpo, and whether the team is tanking or not on March 25, 2026.
Parents should monitor children 24/7 on Roblox, says developer
Roblox said safety was a top priority and it had advanced safeguards in place to keep users safe.
GitHub hits CTRL-Z, decides it will train its AI with user data after all
: As of April 24 you'll be feeding the Octocat unless you opt out
AdeptiCon Preview 2026 – A new Lumineth Realm-lords warband breezes into Warhammer Underworlds
Awesome aelves and their adorable vulpine spirit revealed.
RFK Jr. Is Losing His Grip on the CDC
The Trump administration seems to be putting MAHA on notice.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation: South Australian success an 'ominous sign' for major parties
Pauline Hanson's One Nation is riding a wave of popularity driven by voters weary of mainstream parties.
Ukraine's unique role in the Iran war: From the Politics Desk
Plus, congressional Republicans plot a new reconciliation push.
UK bans crypto donations to political parties in bid to curb foreign influence
The move is likely to hurt the hard-right party Reform UK, which accepts crypto and has received large donations from a businessman living abroad.
Duke University Health System names new CEO
Dr. David Zaas will return to Duke University Health System as its new CEO effective May 1. He brings experience from his recent leadership roles at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and MUSC Health.
Razer's new Blade 16 has Intel's latest chips and ultra-fast RAM
The Razer Blade 16 has Intel's latest Core Ultra 9 chips and up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-9600 RAM.
The Guardian view on a significant week for European politics: progressives have some reasons to be cheerful
Editorial: Events in Denmark and Italy show geopolitical instability is creating opportunities for a centre-left response to the far right
Green Leader Polanski Says the UK Shouldn’t ‘Strangle’ Business
The leader of the UK’s insurgent Green Party said government shouldn’t be “strangling” business, as he tempered his left-wing bloc’s economic message ahead of nationwide local elections in May.
Green Leader Polanski Says the UK Shouldn’t ‘Strangle’ Business
The leader of the UK’s insurgent Green Party said government shouldn’t be “strangling” business, as he tempered his left-wing bloc’s economic message ahead of nationwide local elections in May.
NBA expansion: Seattle and Las Vegas could host new teams after league board of governors vote
The NBA's board of governors vote to allow the league to explore potential expansion franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas.
Dogs were man's best friend far earlier than thought
A jawbone found in a Somerset cave rewrites the story of when and how dogs became our best friends.
UK bans crypto donations to political parties in bid to curb foreign influence
Britain is banning political parties from taking cryptocurrency donations in a move the government says will help protect democracy from illicit finance
What are the rules on cryptocurrency donations to parties?
Ministers to introduce temporary ban on cryptocurrency donations to political parties after review
Glyphosate: A story of science, risk, and nuance
In the summer of 2014, a California groundskeeper named Dewayne Johnson started noticing patches of raw, weeping skin spreading across his body. He had spent years applying Roundup, Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide, for a school district, sometimes drenched in it when equipment malfunctioned. By 2014, he had a diagnosis: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2018, a jury awarded him $289 million in damages, later reduced on appeal. Tens of thousands of lawsuits followed. The story hasn’t quieted down. It’s all over the internet, swinging between “this will kill you, buy organic” and “relax, you’re fear-mongering.” Some of that recent chatter stems from an Executive Order protecting glyphosate and its production, which set off intense infighting within the MAHA movement. Some of it reflects a deeper truth: Americans genuinely care about harmful chemicals in their environment (see poll below). And the conversation isn’t going anywhere, with a Supreme Court case involving Monsanto set for this April. Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. But does glyphosate cause cancer? And how much exposure is actually risky? With so much mistrust in institutions and corporations (and some genuine conflicts of interest), making sense of the actual scientific evidence is genuinely hard. Here is a translation of what the scientific evidence actually says. Does glyphosate cause harm? Glyphosate is an herbicide that kills most plants it contacts rather than targeting specific species. It works by blocking an enzyme pathway (EPSPS) that plants and many microorganisms need to produce essential amino acids. Without those amino acids, the plant can’t grow and dies. Glyphosate was first developed by Monsanto in the 1970s and became ubiquitous after the company introduced “Roundup Ready” crops in the 1990s. In 2024, Bayer removed glyphosate from residential Roundup-branded products due to litigation pressure. But today it is still the most widely used herbicide in the world. Farmers also discovered they could spray it directly on crops like oats, lentils, beans, and peas just before harvest to dry them out faster and make harvesting easier. Because of its widespread use, it’s obviously really important to understand if it’s harmful to humans. The key principle: The dose makes the poison The most important concept in toxicology is that “the dose makes the poison.” Sixteenth-century physician Paracelsus articulated what remains the foundational principle of toxicology: sola dosis facit venenum. Water will kill you if you drink enough of it. Aspirin saves lives at 81 milligrams and causes internal bleeding at higher chronic doses. So, at what dose is glyphosate poisonous? The LD50 in rats (the dose that kills half the test animals) is around 5,600 mg/kg body weight. Table salt is roughly 3,000 mg/kg. By that classic measure, glyphosate is less acutely toxic than salt. But some people are exposed to a lot of glyphosate through their work. And among the general public, there are many questions about low-dose, cumulative exposure from multiple sources over long periods. Does glyphosate cause health problems? Cancer Correlation maps are striking, with one analysis finding that 60% of counties that spray the most glyphosate have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma rates above the national average. But correlation alone doesn’t establish cause, which is why animal and human studies matter. In animals: Rat studies are typically what most fear is rooted in, but most people don’t know the study details on the dosage given to rats. A pooled analysis of the 13 most rigorous rat studies found evidence that very high doses, around 55,000 times greater than typical food residue exposure, can cause certain cancers. In humans: One of the strongest studies followed 55,000 herbicide users over 20 years and found no overall increased cancer risk. There was one signal: among those with the highest use, rates of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appeared elevated. A broader meta-analysis of 18 human studies also found no overall cancer risk, though a separate meta-analysis focused specifically on non-Hodgkin lymphoma found that people with high cumulative glyphosate exposure faced a 41% higher relative risk compared to those with low or no exposure. These human studies are observational studies (randomized controlled trials would be unethical), and meta-analyses are only as reliable as the studies they pool. But the story seems consistent: at very high exposure levels, there may be some cancer risk. But that’s about as far as the science currently takes us. Emerging research: gut and reproductive health Gut: Because glyphosate targets a pathway that exists in some gut bacteria, scientists have questioned whether it could affect the microbiome. In mice, a 2023 University of Iowa study found that glyphosate altered gut bacterial composition and raised markers of intestinal inflammation. A 2024 systematic review found similar patterns: disrupted gut bacteria and problems with the mucus layer that protects the intestinal wall in mice. Whether this translates to humans is an open question. The human gut is highly variable and resistant, and we don't yet have strong studies confirming the same effects in people. Reproductive health: Animal studies have found that glyphosate-based herbicides can interfere with reproductive hormones, including disrupting egg cell development in mice and reducing the number of eggs available in sheep’s ovaries. However, the doses used in these experiments were high, so it’s not yet clear whether the same effects would occur in humans. On the human side, a 2021 pilot study led by Mount Sinai researchers tested urine samples from pregnant women across the U.S. and found glyphosate in 95% of them. The study also found a possible connection between higher glyphosate exposure during pregnancy and a subtle physical difference measured in female newborns. That said, some connections weren’t statistically reliable and this was a small study. The researchers themselves said more and larger studies are needed before drawing firm conclusions. What do regulators say about glyphosate safety? In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2A). The classification is worth taking seriously. But, there’s an important distinction: IARC classifies hazard, meaning the potential to cause harm under some conditions. It does not assess risk, which accounts for actual exposure levels and the real-world probability of harm. The U.S. EPA, the European Food Safety Authority, Health Canada, and regulatory agencies in Australia and Japan have all concluded that glyphosate is “unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans” at realistic exposure levels. They’re asking a different question: given how much of this people actually encounter, what is the probability of harm? Your actual exposure is what determines your actual risk. What does glyphosate mean for your daily life? At the grocery store: Food residues are small. The EPA’s acceptable daily intake is 1.75 mg/kg of body weight per day. To hit that threshold from oatmeal alone, a 150-pound adult would need to eat roughly 50 pounds of oats every day. But this calculation addresses only one pathway (food), and we don’t yet have robust tools to measure people’s actual total exposure. If reducing exposure matters to you, organic certification prohibits synthetic herbicides, and organic oat products generally test at lower or undetectable levels. Either way, a diet rich in whole grains, conventional or organic, is far better for your health than one that omits them out of fear of residues. On the farm: Occupational exposure is orders of magnitude higher than consumer exposure. Farmers and farm workers who mix, load, and apply glyphosate-based herbicides, especially without protective equipment, face meaningfully different risk profiles. Proper PPE isn’t optional. Integrated weed management strategies that rotate chemical modes of action are also worth taking seriously, both for health and for long-term effectiveness. If you live near a farm: Spray drift is real. Concentrations near field edges can spike during and after application, particularly on windy days. This is an area where I think public health could really step up and empower rural communities with buffer zones, rather than placing the onus on individuals. But for now, knowing your local agricultural calendar and keeping windows closed during application are the first steps. Bottom line Dewayne Johnson was exposed to glyphosate at levels most people will never encounter, and a jury decided he deserved compensation. That outcome is not evidence that the oatmeal in your pantry is dangerous. But it is a reminder that the dose, the context, and the person doing the exposing all matter enormously. Glyphosate is a chemical tool with benefits, trade-offs, and genuine open scientific questions. Learning to hold that complexity without collapsing into panic or dismissal is, honestly, one of the most useful and hardest things to do in navigating modern health science. Love, YLE Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) is founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, wife, and mom of two little girls. Hannah Totte, MPH, is an epidemiologist and YLE Community Manager. YLE reaches more than 425,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “Translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe
UK Should Ban Crypto Donations to Political Parties, Review Says
The UK should ban crypto donations to political parties until they are effectively regulated because they risk foreign financial interference in British politics, according to a government-commissioned review into the matter.
UK moves closer to ban on crypto cash in politics
Official recommendation for a pause will be seen as a blow to Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK is the only party so far accepting donations using the technology.
The creator of Fortnite has laid off more than 1,000 staff – despite billions in revenue
Huge cuts announced this week show that truly no developer working in games is safe from corporate whims
Political donations in cryptocurrency could be blocked in blow to Reform UK
Government review also recommends political funding from Britons living abroad be capped at about £300,000 a year
Jair Bolsonaro granted temporary house arrest in Brazil for poor health
Former President Jair Bolsonaro was moved from his cell to hospital earlier this month with pneumonia.
Review of foreign financial interference in UK politics to be published, with ban on crypto donations expected
Ministers will publish review by Philip Rycroft, which will make recommendations relevant to all the political parties, today
Mohamed Salah: Who is the Premier League's greatest forward?
As Mohamed Salah announces he will leave Liverpool this summer, BBC Sport asks you to rank the best forwards in Premier League history.
Newcastle-under-Lyme paramedic with an ice cream business
James Shemmeld is selling ice cream as a contrast to his day job.
Business owners distressed after Meta suspends Facebook accounts
They say they cannot understand the reason for the bans and have struggled to have them overturned.
How magnetic is the moon? A new study cracks the long-standing mystery
Researchers believe rock samples taken from the Apollo missions gave scientists a misleading impression
Russia breaks record, launches nearly 1,000 strike drones in a day
Ukraine said it shot down 906 out of 948 long-range drones launched into its borders within a single 24-hour window.
Mamdani uses fast food feast to bring attention to worker rights
“City Hall’s first-ever mukbang. Here we are," he said.
Sara Duterte impeachment: House starts hearings on case against Philippines VP
The Philippines' VP faces another impeachment round with her 2028 presidential run on the line.
NBPA accuses Bucks of tanking for trying to hold out Giannis Antetokounmpo, but there's a simpler explanation
Antetokounmpo hasn't played since March 15, but he wants to return despite Milwaukee's place in the standings
Shutdown becomes showdown as ICE takes on airports
As the Trump administration positions federal immigration troops at airports around the country, experts question the effectiveness of the presence of untrained agents
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
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