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U.S. wholesale prices surged 4% last month during the Iran war
The surge in prices complicates the work of the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve, who have faced intense pressure from President Donald Trump to lower their benchmark interest rate. But some Fed policymakers are inclined to raise rates instead, as higher energy costs increase the inflation threat.
This Women’s Healthcare Stock Is Up 15% on Reports of a Takeover In the Works
Organon shares surged Friday following reports India’s Sun Pharmaceutical made a bid for the women's healthcare company.
Inflation surged in March as Iran war's energy impact hit consumers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest consumer price index data which showed that CPI inflation surged in March as the Iran war's imapct took a toll on consumer prices.
Comptroller: State workforce overtime surged 23%, driven by DOCCS, prison strike
State workforce overtime costs increased by $1.6 billion in 2025, according to a report released by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said.
Health insurers score major win with higher 2027 Medicare Advantage rates
The stocks of major Medicare Advantage insurers surged on the announcement.
How fuel surcharges are squeezing small business margins
Rising fuel costs are hitting small businesses with a new wave of shipping expenses, as major carriers pass along higher diesel prices through surcharges many owners say feel like “tariffs 2.0,” The Wall Street Journal writes. FedEx and UPS have pushed fuel surcharges above 26%, while diesel prices have surged sharply in recent weeks, driving […]
Why Trump’s Iran Address Failed to Soothe Markets
Oil surged and stocks sold off after the president delivered an unclear case for continuing the war in the Middle East.
Georgia men’s track and field storms through Hurricane Invitational
Georgia men’s track and field surged through the Hurricane Collegiate Invitational in Coral Gables, Florida, with a strong performance on March 27-28. The men’s team scored many impressive results in
How Julianna Stratton surged to victory in Illinois' Democratic Senate primary
Juliana Stratton's anti-ICE position, push for a $25/hour minimum wage and boost from Gov. JB Pritzker led to her win in Illinois, said Quentin Fulks, who led the super PAC backing her.
Warner's 'Sinners' Returns Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Following Oscars Win
Warner’s Sinners returned atop the Official Film Chart, the weekly U.K. home entertainment sales chart, after winning multiple Oscars at the March 15 Academy Awards. Last week’s chart topper, Universal’s Wicked: For Good dropped to No. 2, after four non-consecutive weeks at No. 1. Warner’s other Oscar-winner, One Battle After Another, surged 14 spots to No. … Continue reading "Warner’s ‘Sinners’ Returns Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Following Oscars Win"
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!]
US business activity slows as war-driven costs surge
U.S. business activity slowed in March to its weakest pace in nearly a year as rising costs tied to the Iran conflict weighed on demand, Bloomberg writes. A key S&P Global index dipped but remained in expansion territory, while input prices surged to multimonth highs. Service sector growth softened, hiring declined and companies passed higher […]
U.S. Business Activity Hits 11-Month Low as War Drives Prices Higher
U.S. business activity growth slowed to an 11-month low in March while prices surged, according to a preliminary S&P Global survey released Tuesday. S&P’s composite output index, based on its surveys of services and manufacturing firms, fell to 51.4 from 51.9 in February. That was its weakest readi
Airline CEOs torch lawmakers for turning air travel into a ‘political football’
Airline leaders warned the DHS shutdown left TSA workers unpaid and travelers facing long lines as spring travel demand surged and pressure mounted on the aviation system.
US farmers rush to sell crops as Iran war fuels rally
U.S. grain prices have surged since the Iran war began, triggering a flurry of corn and soybean sales by farmers who squirreled away last year's harvests due to weak prices.
Absa Profit Climbs to Fresh Record as Africa Businesses Expand
Absa Group Ltd.’s profit rose to a record as business outside the lender’s home market of South Africa surged.
Dakota Johnson is the newest Calvin Klein Girl
Interest in the brand has surged with the release of "Love Story," which chronicles the romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and former Calvin Klein publicist Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.
Tracking gas and oil prices as Iran war escalates
Oil prices have surged this week, hiking gas prices when Americans are already struggling with affordability.
Oil prices soar past $100 a barrel as war escalates in Iran
Oil prices surged past $100 per barrel on Sunday, the first time crossing that mark since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as investors worried that the war in Iran would mean prolonged restrictions on Middle Eastern oil flows.
StubHub launches first-ever women's sports ticketing platform after post-Olympics surge
StubHub's new HerSportsHub platform comes after women's sports ticket demand surged 360% for WNBA and 150% for NWSL following the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Taser Maker Axon Says Its Business Is Being ‘Supercharged by AI.’ Its Stock Is Surging.
Axon shares surged after the Taser maker beat estimates for quarterly earnings and forecast faster-than-expected 2026 growth.
Chicago Bears Move One Step Closer to Northwest Indiana
The Chicago Bears’ long-running stadium search moved closer to becoming reality in Northwest Indiana on Thursday, as state officials signaled Hammond as the preferred site and lawmakers advanced legislation designed to support construction of a new NFL stadium. The shift comes as excitement around the franchise has surged following a strong season that included a […] The post Chicago Bears Move One Step Closer to Northwest Indiana appeared first on Capital B Gary.
US core capital goods orders and shipments increase solidly in December
New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased more than expected in December and shipments of these products surged, cementing economists' expectations that business spending on equipment remained solid in the fourth quarter.
Mewgenics earns back entire 7 year development budget just 3 hours after launch
Mewgenics launched on Steam after a 14-year journey and surged to the top as a long-running indie legend finally paid off.
Who Calls 1-800-GAMBLER? Around Big Sports Events, It’s Often Young Men.
Calls to Ohio’s gambling addiction help line have surged since sports betting was legalized in 2023, something the governor now regrets.
Measles continues to spread in the US, but with some letup
As South Carolina's outbreak grows to 876 confirmed cases, vaccinations in the state surged in January. Cases have also been reported in two ICE detention facilities.
Trillion-dollar question for AI business models
Investments in AI companies have surged, but profitability remains out of reach for many, prompting concerns about future business models.
Mental health cases in Israel surged 30% during Gaza war, Health Ministry reports
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SC measles outbreak now the largest in recent years
With more than 700 people sickened, most of them children, South Carolina’s measles outbreak has surged past other infectious episodes in recent years.
Tesla lost $15 billion in brand value in 2025 as Musk stepped deeper into politics, research shows
Tesla's brand value declined while BYD's surged last year, according to research by Brand Finance
Puma shares surge 20% after Anta Sports buys stake for $1.8 billion
Shares of Puma surged after China's Anta Sports said it would acquire a 29% stake in the German sportswear company for 1.5 billion euros.
New Zealand Business Confidence Nears 12-Year High on Rate Cuts
New Zealand business confidence surged to the highest in almost 12 years as aggressive central bank rate cuts spark an economic recovery.
After RAM and SSDs, PSUs and CPU coolers are next in line for price hikes
After RAM and SSD prices surged due to the AI boom, power supplies and CPU coolers now appear to be next in line for price increases.
Ilhan Omar disclosures show husband’s companies surged in value as Minnesota reels from $9B fraud
Disclosures show that companies owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar surged in value, from under $1,000 to up to $25 million, as investigations into Minnesota fraud continue.
AFC North Recap Week 16: Steelers jump to overwhelming favorites
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ playoff odds surged in Week 16 while the Baltimore Ravens’ plummeted.
New Zealand Consumer, Business Optimism to Stoke Economic Growth
New Zealand business confidence soared to a three-decade high in December and the mood of consumers also surged, adding to signs of further economic expansion in the fourth quarter and into 2026.
In aftermath of January wildfires, ER visits surged amid alarming health effects, study finds
For the first time, researchers have been able to study the direct health effects the January wildfires had on Angelenos.
Trump’s affordability argument just got the unlikeliest champion
The main reason Americans are upset about the economy: They are still adjusting to high prices that surged during years of runaway inflation that took place during former President Joe Biden’s term.