On December 6, 2024, NetEase Games released Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based shooter in the style of Overwatch. In just three days after its release, the game attracted more than 10 million players. The developers announced this on social media.
🎉 In just 72 hours, we’ve reached an incredible milestone of 10 million players worldwide! 🎉
— Marvel Rivals (@MarvelRivals) December 9, 2024
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. 🫶
Let’s ignite the battle together! 💖#MarvelRivals pic.twitter.com/5njTulx24e
The game is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Although player and revenue data is not available on most of these platforms, SteamDB provides a bit more information. In particular, on Sunday evening, the game gathered 480,990 players simultaneously on Steam.
In addition to this, Marvel Rivals is the third best-selling game on Steam, behind only Steam Deck and the new Path of Exile 2, which also had a very successful launch. Despite being a free-to-play game, the in-game cosmetic items and season passes are clearly a success.
Nevertheless, the success of the new game from NetEase has caused mixed reviews. Former Blizzard executive Mike Ibarra, who previously stated that players should tip developers, published a post on X, which he later deleted. In it, he called the game a Chinese clone of Overwatch. He also compared the similarity of the names Black Widow and Scarlet Widow, hinting at plagiarism, despite the fact that the Marvel heroine appeared much earlier than the Blizzard shooter.
Ibarra is not the only one who compares Marvel Rivals to Overwatch, but the games have many differences. In particular, Net Ease has a special character synergy mechanic that unlocks additional abilities when certain characters appear on the same team. In addition to this, the game also has environment destruction mechanics and a 6v6 mode, which also distinguishes it from Blizzard games.
At the time of its release, Marvel Rivals included 33 different characters from the Marvel universe, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Venom, Bucky, Captain America, the aforementioned Black Widow, and many others. Players also have access to eight maps for Fast and Competitive modes, Capture mode, and a practice mode. The game is currently in its zero season of Dooms' Rise, which serves as a launching pad for further updates.
Now, the main question for NetEase Games is whether the new superhero shooter will be able to maintain the popularity gained through an active advertising campaign and the Marvel brand, or whether it will repeat the fate of XDefiant, Concord, and many other game services that failed to gain market share.