Key Takeaways
- The Marvel Rivals team reveals ten million people have played the game during its opening weekend.
- Those numbers come off the back of Rivals racking up almost half a million concurrent players on Steam.
- That the game hasn’t suffered any performance issues during its first few days is now even more impressive.
Netease is attempting to prove there’s still room for a new live service game in 2024, launching Marvel Rivals late last Thursday, or early Friday morning depending on where you are. While it’ll be a while before we find out whether Rivals has legs, we already know it has hands with the hero shooter attracting ten million players during its launch weekend.
Rivals immediately demonstrated it had people’s interest by racking up six times the Steam numbers of Overwatch 2 on its opening day. It continued to wow on the numbers front as it peaked at almost half a million players on Steam. There are more than 250,000 playing right now and it’s a Monday morning. No, I’m not jealous, why do you ask?
Related
Marvel Rivals’ Success Will Be Down To More Than Just Its IP
Keeping people playing a live service game requires more than well-known heroes, and Rivals is already demonstrating it’s well aware of that.
Rivals’ impressive Steam numbers are only half the story, though. In fact, they’re only five percent of the story. The team behind Rivals revealed via the game’s Twitter account that ten million of you have taken Rivals for a spin during its first three days. That’s across PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.
Ten Million People Played Marvel Rivals During Its Opening Weekend
Here’s Hoping Lots Of You Stick Around
It was almost inevitable that a free-to-play game available on multiple platforms filled with characters known the world over would be a hit out of the gate. However, you’d have to think 10 million players in 72 hours is a milestone even Netease has been shocked by during Rivals’s opening weekend.
That ten million people have played Rivals during the past three days makes the lack of issues the live service game has suffered even more impressive. Usually, even the biggest studios have some teething problems when they release a game like this, particularly if millions of players pour in as soon as the doors open. As far as I can tell, there have been almost no complaints about Rivals’ performance.
No, all of the complaining has been saved for Rivals’ adorable little Land Shark, Jeff. While there haven’t been problems with performance, there will be balancing to account for as the game progresses, and Netease’s first port of call may well be Jeff. The community seems to be split between those who hate Jeff due to him being overpowered and those who love the bubble-blowing shark because, well, just look at him.
Savvy Jeff mains can swallow up enemies and spit them off the edge of the map which, after it happens a few times in one match, gets pretty annoying. I say leave Jeff alone and nerf Iron Fist. He’s way too overpowered and doesn’t have the cuteness to back it up.
Marvel Rivals is a Super Hero Team-Based PVP Shooter! Assemble an all-star Marvel squad, devise countless strategies by combining powers to form unique Team-Up skills and fight in destructible, ever-changing battlefields across the continually evolving Marvel universe!
- Released
-
December 6, 2024