marvel rivals heroes groot, rocket, hulk, black panther, ironman and dr strangeNetease

Marvel Rivals has been dominating as the top hero shooter since launch, overthrowing Overwatch 2 in the process and its player stats before Season 1 are a sight to behold.

On December 6, 2024, Marvel Rivals debuted and instantly became a smash hit with shooter fans, many of which ditched their main games to try their luck with Netease’s game.

Players were quickly enamored by the depth of Marvel Rivals, learning to master heroes and figure out the most optimal strategies in the early days.

By its third day, the game hit its peak player count at 480,990, and it’s been able to hold surprisingly firm ever since, experiencing very little in the way of drop-off. Very few games see this level of player retention.

Marvel Rivals keeps players coming back throughout Season 0

According to SteamDB, Marvel Rivals hit its lowest peak player count on Christmas Day, December 25, but even then, it still pulled in a remarkable 306,584.

The last few days of Season 0 have all seen the hero shooter eclipse 400,000 peak players with January 8 approaching launch highs, hitting 438,502.

Marvel Rivals community members were stunned by these stats with one on Reddit comparing the numbers between Season 0’s peak and the final day of the season.

marvel rivals steamdb statsSteamDB
Marvel Rivals has maintained its players since launch.

“This translates to a ~93% player retention, absolutely incredible for any kind of game,” they said. “For reference, even a ~50% retention for a game after its first month is considered healthy for a live service.”

“If the game is fun, people will play it. Plus, there hasn’t been a good hero shooter in years, so the market was wide open for Rivals to dominate,” another chimed in.

Indeed, many streamers who are known to broadcast their gameplay of other titles, such as Call of Duty, have jumped ship to Marvel Rivals, citing issues with their typical games of choice.

FaZe Swagg, for instance, rage quit Warzone mid-stream over issues with cheaters and switched to the Netease game.

Overwatch has also been massively affected by Marvel Rivals’ success, seeing its Twitch viewership plummet as users changed over to the new hero shooter on the market.

Marvel Rivals is already printing money

As reported by Chinese media company GameLook, Marvel Rivals has already made significant money in its first month.

Marvel Rivals season 1 sizeNetEase Games

On Steam alone, the game had made an estimated $54.5M, $27.2M on PlayStation, and $2.7M on Xbox. In total, the company believes that the estimated global revenue for Marvel Rivals is close to $100M.

Furthermore, it’s theorized that Marvel Rivals could end up generating an annual revenue of $1.36B.

This comes before Season 1 even launches on January 10 and it will likely bring in a trove of additional users looking to try out new heroes in The Fantastic Four, a Competitive rank reset, and more.