Important takeaways
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The Marvel Rivals team reveals that ten million people played the game during its opening weekend.
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These numbers come off the back of Rivals garnering nearly half a million concurrent players on Steam.
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That the game hasn't suffered any performance issues in the first few days is now even more impressive.
Netease is trying to prove there's still room for a new live service game in 2024, launching Marvel Rivals late Thursday or early Friday morning depending on where you are. While it'll be a while before we find out if Rivals has legs, we already know it has hands with the hero shooter beckoning ten million players during the launch weekend.
Rivals immediately showed it had people's interest by collecting six times the Steam numbers of Overwatch 2 on its opening day. It continued to impress the numbers as it peaked at nearly half a million players on Steam. There is more than 250,000 are playing right now and it's a Monday morning. No, I'm not jealous, why do you ask?
Family
Marvel Rival's success will be down to more than just its IP
Getting people to play a live service game requires more than well-known heroes, and Rivals already shows that they are well aware of that.
Rivals' impressive Steam numbers are only half the story, however. In fact, they are only five percent of the story. The team behind Rivals revealed via the game's Twitter account that ten million of you has taken Rivals for a spin in the first three days. This applies to PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Ten million people played Marvel Rivals during its opening weekend
Here's hoping many of you stick around
It was almost inevitable that a free-to-play game available on multiple platforms filled with characters known worldwide would be a hit out of the gate. However, you have to think 10 million players in 72 hours is a milestone even Netease has been shocked by during Rival's opening weekend.
That ten million people have played Rivals over the last three days makes the lack of problems the live service game has suffered from all the more impressive. Usually, even the biggest studios have some teething problems when releasing a game like this, especially 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 Rival's performance.
No, all complaints have been saved for Rival's adorable little Land Shark, Jeff. While there haven't been any performance issues, there will be balancing to consider as the game progresses, and Netease's first port of call may very well be Jeff. The community seems to be split between those who hate Jeff for being overpowered and those who love the bubble-blowing shark for, well, just looking at him.
Skilled Jeff nets can swallow enemies and spit them out from the edge of the map, which, after it happens a few times in a match, becomes quite annoying. I say leave Jeff alone and nerf Iron Fist. He's way too overwhelmed 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 team, devise countless strategies by combining powers to form unique Team-Up skills, and battle on destructible, ever-changing battlefields in the ever-evolving Marvel Universe!
- Released
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December 6, 2024
