Marvel Rivals has very quickly skyrocketed to one of my most played games at the moment, and I'm not alone. The NetEase Games hero shooter is already proving to be a solid contender to Overwatch 2, and now with the arrival of Season 1 the game keeps growing. It's been a month, and Marvel Rivals just hit an entirely new player count peak on Steam, and I don't think it's going to be slowing down anytime soon.
When it launched, free Steam game, but over the last month, I wondered whether NetEase Games could keep up the momentum. Turns out the team absolutely can.
With the arrival of Season 1, the Marvel Rivals playercount has now peaked at an eye-watering 644,269 on Steam. That means it's now beaten the all-time peaks for Apex Legends, Path of Exile 2, and Valheim. The game is still behind Dota 2, Palworld, and PUBG, but holding strong for a month and then increasing its reach is nothing to sneeze at.
As someone who has now sunk well over 50 hours into the multiplayer game and doesn't plan to stop anytime soon, it's easy to see why Rivals is getting bigger. Not only did NetEase games wait a month for the player meta to settle, but it used that time to a deluge of new content. With Season 1 we now have a new battle , extra maps, two more characters in Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman, and even more on the way over the next three months – but that's not all.
NetEase Games brought about all the Marvel Rivals nerfs and buffs many of us wanted. The ranged DPS menaces of Hela and Hawkeye have been weakened, and almost every other change is a buff to a hero that needs it. NetEase Games has focused on ensuring that as many team compositions as possible are fun to play, and buffing any lacking heroes is the perfect way to incentivize that.
Now that Season 1 is here make sure you keep up to date with our Marvel Rivals codes you want to redeem for some free stuff.
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