Marvel Rivals drew a ton of attention earlier this year with its enormous open beta, and it looks like that momentum isn’t showing any signs of stopping. Within hours of release, the game blitzed onto the most-played charts for Steam.
Just two hours after its release on December 5, Marvel Rivals had over 440,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. That put it within the top four most-played games on Steam at that moment. At the time of writing, on Friday morning, Rivals still has a count of nearly 300,000 concurrent players. It’s also the second highest-selling game on Steam, just behind Path of Exile 2 – keep in mind Marvel Rivals is free, of course.
Those are impressive numbers in any regard, but even more impressive when you remember the game simultaneously launched on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as well. We’ll likely hear full player numbers for opening weekend in the near future.
It’s also important to note that there have been virtually zero reports of servers going down, despite the player numbers. Even in our experience with roughly 15 matches, we were able to get in within five seconds and didn’t have server issues with a single one.
While a strong debut is good, the key for any live service game will be if it can keep that player count high – and keep players invested for a long time. There are a few smart moves Marvel Rivals is making in that regard as well.
All 33 launch characters are free for all players, no one is locked off whatsoever. The game launched alongside its Season 0, which includes eight maps, Quick Match, and Competitive. During an AMA livestream, developer NetEase confirmed the game will have a new season every 13 weeks, and each season will bring new characters, maps, and events.
At the same time, the Battle Pass for the game is a one-time purchase that never expires, meaning you won’t need to complete it in one season or set period of time. The game will also have Twitch Drops that start on December 6, granting rewards for watching Marvel Rivals streams and completing tasks.
Marvel Rivals is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
